Intervention
by 123booilove
Summary: When Clockwork doesn't intervene, and Danny goes to Gravity Falls. Apology for horrible summary, the story is way better.
1. Phantom Trapped

"He's looking at it! He's looking at it!" Dipper heard his sister squeal. He rolled his eyes. He read the note from over the boy's shoulder as he continued spraying a jar on the shelf.

 _Do you like me?_

 _Yes_

 _Definitely_

 _Absolutely_

"I rigged it!" Mabel told him.

"Mabel, I know you're going through your whole 'Boy Crazy' phase, but I kind of think you're overdoing it with the crazy part. Plus, he looks like he's 16 or something." She blew a raspberry.

"What? Come on, Dipper! This is our first summer away from home! It's my big chance to have an epic summer romance!" Dipper decided not to point out the fact that they're twelve.

"Yeah, but do you have to flirt with _every_ guy you meet?" He remembered the time with the guy at the cards display, the one with the turtle, and the worst one, the one with the mattress guy.

"Mock all you want brother, but I got a good feeling about this summer. I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked through that door right now!" Stan walked through the door and burped, but it didn't come up all the way.

"Oh! Oh, not good. Ow."

"WHY?" Mabel screamed. Dipper laughed. They both heard someone clear their throat behind them.

"Um..hi. Were you the ones who wrote this?" Dipper recognized him as the boy Mabel gave the note to.

"Nope. All her. Nothing to do with me" Dipper said and pointed to Mabel. The boy looked really confused.

"Um...you do know I'm 15 right" Mabel made a psh noise.

"Age is just a number! Anyways, what is your name, handsome new friend? I'm Mabel, and this is Dipper!" The boy looked seriously confused. Dipper didn't blame him. Mabel could be overwhelming at first.

"Um….Danny? Are you guys twins or something?" Dipper didn't reply, knowing what was coming.

"YES!" Mabel screamed and hugged him. "We're the closest twins anyone has ever met! Everyone tells us that!" Before Danny could say anything else, they heard Stan say start talking.

"All right, all right, people. I need someone to go hammer up these signs in the spooky part of the forest" Dipper was quick to try and get out of the task.

"Not it!" He screamed. Mabel did the same.

"Uh, also not it." The Mystery Shack handyman, Soos, said. Dipper liked him.

"Nobody asked you, Soos"

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." Then he started eating a candy bar that came from nowhere. Dipper wondered if he was the only one questioning that.

"Wendy, I need you to put up this sign!" The redhead sitting on a chair behind the counter who Dipper assumed was Wendy replied.

"I would, but I, ugh, can't, reach it, uhh" Stan sighed and looked back to Dipper and Mabel.

"I'd fire you all if I could. All right, let's make it...eenie, meenie, miney…." Stan pointed to Dipper. Uh oh. "You." Dipper groaned.

"Aw, what? Grunkle Stan, whenever I'm in those woods, I feel like I'm being watched." Stan groaned and mumbled something.

"I'm telling you, something is going on in this town! Just today, my mosquito bites spelled out beware" He pulled out his arm and showed it to everyone.

"That says bewarb." Dipper looked down, embarrassed. He was sure they said beware earlier. "Look, kid, The whole monsters in the forest thing is just local legend drummed up by guys like to to send merch to guys like that" Stan pointed to a sweaty, overweight man who was giggling at a Stan bobblehead. " So quit being so paranoid! But if it will really make you feel better, take him with you" he pointed to Danny who looked very shocked.

"But, um, I don't work here?" Stan just stared at him.

"Just do it." Stan said. Danny shrugged and gave an okay. Dipper was not thrilled to go into a creepy forest with some stranger he just met. Danny could be a serial killed for all he knows! In fact when he thought about it, he did look pretty shady. Does he look like he has any weapons? Dipper looked at him. No, nothing obvious. That didn't mean he didn't have anything hidden. Maybe he should bring a weapon-

"HELLO?" Suddenly Danny was up in his face. He screamed and jumped back. Danny chuckled and made a "calm down" motion.

"Woah. Lost in thought?" Dipper nodded, not really trusting him.

"Yeah…" His mind wandered back to Grunkle Stan.

"Ugh, Grunkle Stan. Nobody believes anything I say." Danny looked at him sympathetically.

"Yeah. I know how that feels" He put the sign down from the tree. Danny looked like he was lost in memory, then cringed and looked down. "Where I come from, no one ever believed anything I said about weird stuff" Dipper's suspicion level immediately went up. He assumed Danny lived here all his life. Apparently he didn't, and he came from another town with weird things there.

"Where did you live?" Danny froze, like he gave away too much information. "Not important."

'Why did you move here?"

"Um….I...left because…..my parents...they um…..died." Dipper cringed. He felt horrible. Of course he didn't want to talk about his past!

"Oh wow, I'm really sorry dude" Danny rubbed his arm.

"It's okay. I moved so I could get away from all that. If you could not tell anyone about this, it would be really appreciated." Dipper nodded frantically.

"Of course. Your secret is safe with me. So, where are you living then?"

"Um...you see….I don't really have anywhere to live?" Dipper eyes widened. He couldn't believe it! His parents just died and now he didn't have anywhere to live?

"No! Okay nope. Not anymore. You're living at the Mystery Shack now."

"What? Do you think your Grunkle? Is that what you call him?" Dipper nodded. "Grunkle will let me stay there?" Dipper sighed.

"Look, he may seem really mean, but he actually does care. He wouldn't let an innocent kid stay on the street" Danny looked hesitant, but eventually nodded.

"Okay, I guess…." Dipper picked the sign back up and tried to hammer it in, only to hear a banging noise that sounded like metal.

'Huh?" Dipper looked at Danny, and he shrugged. He tapped the tree with the hammer again, and it made the same sound again. He wiped away some dust and opened the door to see some switches.

"Woah, what is this?" Danny asked. He tested one of the switches, but nothing happened. He tried the other, and they both jump as a hatch opens behind them.

"What the?" He asked.

"No idea, man" They both look inside. Dipper picked the book up and blew dust off it. He flips a page and looks at the eyeglass.

"Really? An eye glass? How cliche can you be?" Danny asked. Dipper rolled his eyes. He flips to a random page and starts reading out loud.

"It's hard to believe it's been been six years since I began studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon" He continued flipping through pages.

"What is this?"

"Dude, if I knew, I would have already answered the first three times you asked"

"Rhetorical question" Dipper mumbled. He stopped on a page that had TRUST NO ONE in bold letters. He glanced at Danny, but he didn't notice. Danny started reading.

"Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before _he_ finds it." he heard Danny shudder. "Remember: in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust." He noticed Danny look at him. Dipper closed the book. Suddenly Mabel jumped up from behind a log.

"HALLO!" Both Dipper and Danny screamed that time.

'How did you get here?" Danny asked.

"It's Mabel. Don't ask."

"What'cha readin', some nerd thing. Oh my gosh, Danny! Are you a nerd like my brother?" Dipper took the time to hide the book behind his back.

 _Trust no one…._

He heard the words ring in his ears.

"Uh, uh, it's nothing!".

"Uh, uh, it's nothing!" Mabel mocked. Then her expression changed to hurt and confused. She laughed nervously.

"What? Are you actually not gonna show me?" Danny just looked on, observing.

"Okay, okay, you see it's-" Danny cut Dipper off.

"Uh, guys. We might want to go somewhere more private.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

"It's amazing! Grunkle Stan said I was just being paranoid, but according to this book, Gravity Falls has a secret dark side." He showed Mabel a page.

"Wait, who says it's a dark side? Yeah there's some bad stuff in that book, but some of it is really cool!"

"Woah! Shut up!" Mabel said and pushed Dipper.

"And get this! After a certain point, the pages stop, like the guy who was writing it….mysteriously disappeared!"

"So cool!" Mabel squealed.

"How is that good?" Danny asked, confused. Before they could answer, the doorbell rang.

"Well, time to spill the beans." Then she knocked over a empty can of beans that seem to have come from nowhere. Dipper wondered if magically appearing objects is in the journal. He'd have to check later. He had other things to worry about. "Boop. Beans. This girl's got a date! Woot Woot!" Then she fell backwards into her chair, giggling like a maniac.

"Okay. Let me get this straight. In the half hour I was gone, you already got a boyfriend?" Dipper was already suspicious.

"What can I say? I guess I'm just IRRESISTIBLE" Then she pulled her arms inside her sweater and made her sleeves flop around. Danny chuckled.

"See! No one can resist my greatness!" Dipper rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch next to Danny. The doorbell rang again. "Oh. Coming!" Dipper really hoped that Mabel's new "boyfriend" wasn't some creep over something. He turned his attention to the journal. Danny had flipped to the page with a Leprecorn on it. It looked really strange. Grunkle Stan walked in.

"Oh. What're you two reading? Actually, who are you?" Danny quickly shoved the journal under the couch and grabbed the nearest magazine.

"We were just catching up on...uh….Gold Chains for Old Men Magazine?" Danny looked at Dipper and he gagged.

"That's a good issue. Okay so who are you?"

"Danny. I'm Dipper and Mabel's new friend." Dipper remembered something.

"Oh yeah Grunkle Stan I've been meaning to ask you-" He was cut off by Mabel standing by the door frame.

"Hey family and friend! Say hello to my new boyfriend!" Dipper's suspicion level went up immediately.

"Sup"

"Hey…"

"How's it hanging?"

"Hi?"

"We met at the cemetery. He's _really_ deep." She felt his arm. "Oh. Little muscle there. That's….what a surprise.." She said, not really seeming focused to Dipper. He already didn't like this guy.

"So, what's your name?"

"Uh...Normal….MAN" Okay, if Dipper's suspicions weren't high before, they were now. Danny looked like he was thinking the same thing.

'Um..Norman...are you bleeding?" Danny asked. Dipper then noticed the red liquid dripping down his face.

'It's jam," Norman said quickly. Mabel gasped dramatically.

'I LOVE jam! Look at this!" she gestured between them. Dipper internally facepalmed and waited for Norman to talk.

"So, you wanna go hold hands or whatever?" Norman asked. Dipper decided to save the eyeroll for when this whole encounter is over. Mabel giggled and jumped up and down.

"Oh, oh, my goodness." She giggled once again. "Don't wait up!" Then she ran out of the room. Norman pointed at the three of them and tried to follow her, but hit the doorframe multiple times before leaving. That's it. Norman was was too suspicious to be left alone. It's time to consult the journal. But first…

"Hey, Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked, trying to look innocent and sweet.

'What do you want, kid, I got a tour to run" he replied. Well, here goes nothing. Dipper really hoped his reading of Stan was right. I mean, who would leave a kid out on the streets?

"So you know Danny here? Yeah well-" He was interrupted for the- what the third? Fourth?- time today by Grunkle Stan.

"Cut to the chase kid. I don't have all day" Dipper took a deep breath.

'Okay well Danny kind of doesn't have a home so we were hoping he could stay here?" Dipper said quickly.

"Why doesn't he have a home?" Stan asked. Dipper looked at Danny, but before he could say anything, Danny did.

"My parents died. I wanted to move to get away from all of that, but I didn't really think it through, so I ended up here, homeless." Danny said and Stan's eyes immediately softened.

"Okay, kid. You can stay here. I'm gonna put you to work though!" Danny looked ecstatic.

"Will you be paying him, Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked and gave him a stern look.

"Fine, fine. It's a dollar an hour" Dipper sighed. He guessed that was all he was going to get out of Stan.

"Yes sir! It'll be like I'm not even here!" Danny said. Okay, now that that was taken care of, it's time to investigate.

"Danny, meet me upstairs in the attic in twenty seconds" Danny nodded and they both rushed up the stairs.

"Known for their pale skin and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistakes for….TEENAGERS? Beware Gravity Falls' nefarious" he gasped. "ZOMBIE!" he screamed. Danny covered his ears.

"Do you have to be so loud? I'm right here you know!" Why would Danny's ears hurt from that? Dipper wasn't yelling that loud, or in his ear. He decided to look into it later.

"Sorry" They both looked out the window to see Norman groaning with his arms stretched out, walking towards Mable.

"I like you"

"Oh no! Mabel! No, no, Mabel, watch out!" Danny breathed in sharply. Norman grunted again and put his hands around Mabel's neck.

"AHHHHHHHHHH" Dipper screamed and Danny covered his ears again.

"We JUST had this conversation!" Danny whisper screamed. Dipper ignored him, instead watching Norman and Mabel. Surprisingly, Norman removed his arms and put a flower necklace on Mabel's head.

"Daisies? You scallywag….."

"Is your sister really a zombie, or are we both being really paranoid?" Danny said. Dipper looked back at the page.

"It's a dilemma, to be sure" I couldn't help but hear you two talk to each other in this empty room" Suddenly, Soos appeared. **(AN: A wild Soos appeared!)** How do these things keep happening? He should make a list of all the times this happens.

"How did we miss you?" Danny asked and Soos shrugged.

"Soos, you've seen Mabel's boyfriend. He's gotta be a zombie, right?" Dipper asked.

"Hmm. How many brains didja see the guy eat?" Soos asked.

"Maybe he's just really bad at his job" Danny piped in.

"Look dudes, I believe you. I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town. Like the mailman? Pretty sure that dude's a werewolf." Soos looked like he was having a flashback. When he came back, he continued talking. "But you gotta have evidence. Otherwise, people are just going to think you're a major league cuckoo clock." Dipper sghed.

"As always, Soos, you're right"

"My wisdom is a blessing and a curse" Soos said and made a dramatic pose.

"Soos! The portable toilets are clogged again!"

"I am needed elsewhere" Then he walked backwards out of the room.

"He is really weird" Danny said.

"Agreed"

"Okay Danny. My sister could be in trouble. It's time to get some evidence."

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Mabel and Norman were playing frisbee in the part. Mabel threw the frisbee at Norman, who fell over. Dipper frowned at Norman.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Mabel and Norman were going to a diner. Norman broke the door window and opened it to let Mabel inside. Norman stumbled around, trying to follow Mabel. Dipper and Danny looked out from their menus.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Mabel and Norman were playing in a field. Norman fell into an open grave, then crawled out, hand first, screaming. Mabel paused, then laughed.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

"I've seen enough, Danny. We're going to see Mabel"  
"Um, do I have to come? I don't really know your sister." Danny asked.

"I guess not, but at least wait outside the door" Danny rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine."

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

"Mabel, we've gotta talk about Norman" Dipper had his mental finger crossed.

'Isn't he the best? Check out this giant smooch mark he gave me!" Dipper screamed. He was praying to whatever God is out there that that is not a zombie mark.

"Ha ha! Gullible. It was just an accident with the leaf blower!" Dipper decided he didn't even want to know.

"That was fun" Dipper shook his head.

"No, Mabel, listen! I'm trying to tell you that Norman in not what he seems!" He showed her the journal. Mabel gasped excitedly.

"You think he might be a vampire? That would be so _awesome_!" She squealed.

"Guess again sister. SHABAM!" He flipped to the gnome page. Mabel made a disgusted noise.

"Oh wait, sorry," he flipped to the right page. "Shabam"

"A zombie? That's not funny, Dipper."

"I'm not joking! It all adds up! The bleeding, the limp. He never blinks! Have you noticed that?" Mabel blinked.

"Maybe _he's_ blinking when _you're_ blinking"

"Mabel, remember what the book said about Gravity Falls? TRUST NO ONE!" Dipper heard the volume of his voice rise.

"Well what about _me_? Why can't you trust me?" She put on star earrings. "Beep bop!" Dipper had to get this through to her! He grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her.

"Mabel he's gonna eat your brain!" Mabel pushed him away.

"Dipper. Listen to me. Norman and I are going on a date at five o'clock, and I'm gonna be ADORABLE, and he's going to be DREAMY" She started pushing Dipper out of the room. He started stuttering. "And I am not gonna let you ruin it with one of your crazy CONSPIRACIES! Danny? Ugh, he pulled you into this? Dipper! I can't do you two right now!" Then she slammed the door. Dipper sighed and sat down.

"What am I going to do?" he asked himself. Danny patted his back reassuringly.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. I've been in worse situations than this, and they worked out fine for me!"

"What could be worse than this?"  
"You'd be surprised," Danny mumbled.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

He heard the clock chime five o'clock. He was sitting on a chair and Stan had already put Danny to work so he was alone. The doorbell rang. Mabel came running down.

"Coming! Hey Norman. How do I look?"

"Shiny…"

"You always know what to say!" Mabel said happily. Then they both walked off. Dipper sighed.

"Soos was right. I don't have any real evidence" He watched as Mabel and Norman were playing hopscotch. He fast forwarded to where Norman had his arm around Mabel. "I guess I can be kind of paranoid sometimes and-" he stopped as he saw Norman's hand fall off and then he went around and picked it back up. How did he miss that the first time? "Wait, WHAT?" He rewound the tape again and watched it again. He then screamed and the chair he was sitting on fell over. "I was right! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Danny!" He raced through the gift shop. "Danny! Come on! No time to explain let's go!" Danny looked startled but followed him anyway. He raced out and saw Stan showing a "face rock" to the audience.

"Over here! Grunkle Stan!"

"Sir! Stan!" Danny said. Dipper made a frustrated noise.

"Stan! Stan!" He then noticed Wendy drive up in a golf cart. "Wendy! Wendy Wendy! I need to borrow the golf cart so I can save my sister from a zombie!"

"Wait, what?" Danny asked. "We were right?"

"Who's this?" Wendy asked.

"This is Danny! Wendy, Danny. Danny, Wendy. Now can I please have the golf cart keys?" Wendy smirked and gave him the keys.

"Try not to hit any pedestrians!" Then she walked off.

"She is not very responsible, is she?" Danny asked, watching her walk off.

"Nope! Okay, let's go!" They both hopped into the golf cart and Dipper started driving.

"Why is the twelve year old driving?" Danny asked.

"It's not like you have your license either. Okay, look at this!" He gave Danny the camera and showed him the video. He started to back up, but Soos stopped him.

"Dude, it's me, Soos. This is for the zombies" He gave Dipper a shovel. Dipper thanked him. "And this is incase you see a pinata" Soos handed him a bat.

"Uh….thanks?" he continued driving. He handed the bat to Danny.

"Wow, we actually got it right? That never happens!" Danny asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.

'Nothing!" He replied quickly. He heard Mabel scream.

"Don't worry Mabel! We'll save you from that zombie!"

"Help!" he heard her scream. The pit in his stomach just doubled in size.

"Hold on!" He drove to the area to where Mabel was to see….gnomes? They were pinning her down, with one standing on a rock in front of them. The one on the rock started speaking.

"The more you struggle, the more awkward this is gonna be for everybody! Just, ha ha, okay. Get her arm there, Steve."

"Let go of me!" Mabel screamed and punched a gnome off. He bounced around, and then started puking a rainbow. He saw Danny gag.

"Uhhh…." Danny said. He had enough.

"What the HECK is going on here?" he screamed. A gnome hissed at him.

"Dipper! Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total jerks!" A gnome pulled her hair. "Hair, hair, hair!"

'What about the blood/jam stuff?" Danny asked.

"Oh, that actually was just jam. We love it," the gnome on the rock replied.

"Gnomes? Huh, I was way off" Dipper took the journal out of his vest. "Gnomes: little men of the Gravity Falls Forest. Weaknesses: unknown" He realizes that the gnomes have managed to tie Mabel to the ground.

"Aw, come on!" He walked up to the gnome on the rock.

"Hey, HEY! Let go of my sister!" The gnome on the rock laughed nervously.

"Oh! Ha, ha, hey, there! Um, you know, this is really just a big misunderstanding. You see, your sister's not in danger. She's just marrying all one thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity! Isn't that right, honey?"

"You guys are buttfaces!" Mabel screamed and a gnome covered her mouth. He looked over to Danny, who looked conflicted. Mabel tried to scream, but it was muffled.

"Danny, if you could do something, it would be greatly appreciated!" Dipper yelled, hoping to push Danny's decision. The gnome on the rock started talking again.

"You think you can stop us, boy? You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race! Do not trifle with the-" he was cut off as Dipper tossed him with his shovel. The gnome screamed. He went over to Mabel and cut her free with his shovel. Danny looked relieved. Mabel screamed and kicked some gnomes away.

"He's getting away with our queen! No, no, no!" the gnome, who seemed to be the leader, yelled.

'Seatbelt" Dipper said, and Mabel and Danny buckled up.

"You've messed with the wrong creatures, boy! Gnomes of the forest, ASSEMBLE!" The leader gnome screamed.

"Hurry, before they come after us!" Mabel yelled.

"I wouldn't worry about it. See their little legs? Those suckers are tiny!" Dipper said.

"Looks can be deceiving! LOOK!" Danny yelled and pointed behind them. There was a huge creature made of gnomes following them.

"Dang," Mabel said quietly.  
"Alright guys, teamwork, like we practiced," the leader gnome said. The gnome creature started moving.

"MOVE DIPPER! GO!" Danny screamed. He slammed down on the gas, but nothing happened.

"It's out of gas!" Dipper yelled. He was sure they were all going to die. He noticed Danny close his eyes and put his hand on the side of the golf cart. He swore the hand was glowing a faint green. Then, all of a sudden, the golf cart lurched forward. There must be some gas in it after all!

"Come back with our queen!" the leader gnome yelled.

"It's getting closer!" The gnome creature threw several gnomes at the golf cart. They start destroying the cart. Mabel elbows a gnome off the cart. Another gnome jumps from behind Dipper. He grabs the gnome and slams him into the steering wheel. All of the gnomes strangely avoid Danny. Another gnome jumps onto Dipper's face. Ow ow ow ow ow.

'I'll save you Dipper!" Mabel yells and started punching the gnome on Dipper's face. It flew off his face.

"Thanks...Mabel. Wait, my hat!" He looks behind him to see the gnome had taken his hat with him.

"Now's not the time Dipper!" Mabel yelled. The gnome creature picked up a tree and threw it at the cart. They all screamed except for Danny, who was sweating. He had opened his eyes now, and they were an electric green.

"EYES ON THE ROAD DIPPER!" Mabel screamed. They went under an area where the tree went up, but the cart turned over. Now that it wasn't moving, something was different about it. Danny was passed out at this point. Dipper dragged him out and laid him down next to the leaf blower. The strange thing is, he didn't look injured. Just really tired. Like he passed out from exhaustion. His attention went back to the gnome creature when it started moving towards them.

"Stay back man!" he yelled and threw his shovel at the creature. The creature punched the shovel into the ground. He looked around for the bat Danny had earlier, but it must have been lost somewhere. Dipper hugged Mabel and she hugged him back.

"Where is Grunkle Stan?" he yelled.

"It's the end of the line kids! Mabel, marry us before we do something crazy!" the leader yelled.

"There's gotta be a way out of this!" Dipper yelled. They could run inside, wait no the creature would just destroy the shack. They could try to wake Danny up, but what could he do that they can't? **(AN: Oh I don't know, just pretty much EVERYTHING)**

"I gotta do it" he heard Mabel say. At first he thought he misheard Mabel, but he realized she was serious.

"What? Mabel. Don't do this? Are you crazy?" Dipper yelled.

"Trust me" was all she said.

"What?"

"Dipper, just this once. Trust me!" He looked at the gnomes,then at Mabel. Well, he hoped Mabel had a plan. He backs away.

"All right Jeff. I'll marry you" Jeff, so that was his name.

"Hot dog! Help me down, Jason" He started climbing down the pile of gnomes. "Thanks, Andy! All right, left foot, there we go, watch those fingers, Mike." Jeff approached Mabel and held out a diamond ring. Where did he get that from? "Eh, eh?" Mabel held out her hand. Dipper really wanted to look away, but he knew he shouldn't. Jeff put the ring on Mabel's finger.

'Bada bing, bada bam! Now, let's get you back to the forest, honey!" Jeff said.

"You may now kiss the bride!" Mabel said, still looking at the ring. Dipper scrunched up his face. What was Mabel _thinking_?

"Well, don't mind if I do," Jeff said and leaned in to kiss Mabel. She leaned in, only to grab the leaf blower that was near them.

"Ah! Hey, hey, wait a minute! Woah, woah, what's going on?" Jeff got sucked halfway into the leaf blower. Well, now Dipper knows what she was thinking.

"That's for lying to me!" She increased the sucking power. "That's for breaking my heart!"

"Ow, my face!" Jeff complained.

"And THIS is for messing with my brother. Wanna do the honors?" Dipper smirked and walked up next to her.

'On three!" Dipper said.

"One, two three!" They both yelled and blasted Jeff towards the gnome creature. The creature exploded into a lot of gnomes.

"I'll get you for this!" Jeff screamed while he was flying off back to the forest. Dipper felt pretty good about him and his sister right now. If they could battle a hundred gnomes, what couldn't they do together? All the gnomes started freaking out. Mabel moved the leaf blower back and forth, blowing all the gnomes away.

"Anyone else want some?" Dipper screamed. They all scattered. One got stuck in a six pack holder until Gompers picked him up and carried him away. Dipper kind of felt sorry for that one. Mabel turned to him.

"Hey Dipper? I, um...I'm sorry for ignoring your advice. You really were just looking out for me." She said and looked down. Dipper really didn't want his sister to start crying. He smiled.

"Oh, don't be like that. You saved our butts back there." he replied, trying to make her feel better.

"I guess I'm just sad that my first boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes." Mabel sighed.

"Look on the bright side. Maybe the next one _will_ be a vampire!" He said cheerfully.

"Oh, you're just saying that!" Mabel said. Yes, yes he is definitely just saying that.

"Awkward sibling hug?" Dipper asked.

"Awkward sibling hug." Mabel replied and they hugged.

"Pat. Pat." they both said mechanically and patted each other on the back. They let go of each other.

"We should probably go wake Danny up." Mabel smirked at a very confused Dipper.

"Speaking of…..why were you staring at Danny for so long earlier? Is it….a crush maybe?" Mabel asked Dipper. He was shocked. Him _liking_ Danny? He'd never heard anything so ridiculous!

"What? Of course not! I was just noticing some weird things about his face!" Mabel didn't buy it.

"Look bro-bro, if this is about him being a guy, I want you to know that I am fully supportive-" Dipper interrupted her.

"NO MABEL! It's not that! I actually don't like him! I just noticed how earlier his eyes seem to be _green_ instead of blue! Or how when he passed out, he didn't have a scratch on him! He passed out from exhaustion! He's fifteen, we're twelve and we're fine! Does that not seem weird to you?" Mabel rolled her eyes.

"Come on Dipping Sauce, look at him! He's just a normal human. But fine, I'll let it drop for now. Don't think I'm not on to you though. Now let's go wake him up!"

"I"VE KNOWN HIM FOR A DAY!" Dipper screamed. Danny shot up without us having to do anything.

"Dipper! Third time today! What was so important that you had to scream it to the heavens?"

"Nothing!" Dipper did not need Danny knowing about his supposed "crush" on him.

"Okay? Let's just go back in. I'm exhausted" Danny said and they all trudged into the Shack. They were immediately greeted by Stan.

"Yeesh. You three get hit by a bus or something? Ahah!" The three of them just continued walking.

"Uh, hey! Wouldn't you know it? Um, I accidentally overstocked some inventory, so uh...how's about each of you take one item from the gift shop? On the house, y'know?" Stan said and they all looked up.

"Really?" Mabel asked.

"What's the catch?" Dipper asked and folded his arms.

"Am I included in this group?" Danny asked hopefully.

"The catch is do it before I change my mind, now take something. And yes kid, you are included" Stan replied and started messing with his money. Danny pumped his fist and went to go look around. Dipper saw a blue pine tree hat and decided that he needed a new hat to replace the old one. He put it on.

"Hmm. That oughta do the trick!" He saw Mabel pick up an item from a box and twirl around. Grunkle Stan is probably going to regret his decision in a few seconds.

'And I will have a…..GRAPPLING HOOK! Yes! "

"Wouldn't you rather have like, a doll or something?" Stan asked.

"GRAPPLING HOOK!" She screamed and grappled-is that a word?- to a beam on the ceiling.

"Fail enough! Now what do you want, kid that I can't remember the name of?"

"A wrench" Danny said simply.

"A wrench? You don't want something actually useful?" Stan asked. Dipper and Mabel were also confused.

"I like to build stuff, and I need a wrench to finish my tool kit" Danny said.

"...Okay then!"

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Dipper was writing in the journal:

 _This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I would trust._ He looked at Mabel, then at Danny laying on the floor, getting to know her. _But when you battle a hundred gnomes with someone, you realize they've probably always got your back. And even though I don't exactly trust Danny yet, and he obviously doesn't trust me, I have a feeling he's not going to do anything bad._ He looked up from the journal again.

"Hey Mabel, can you get the light?" he asked.

"I'm on it!" She shot the lamp with the grappling hook, which also went through the window.

"Grappling hook.." she said. They all laughed.

"Do you think your uncle will get mad at us for that?" Danny asked.

"We'll deal with it tomorrow" Dipper replied. He continued writing.

 _Our uncle told us there was nothing strange about this town. But who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked._

 **END OF CHAPTER**

 **Word Count: 5773  
**

 **AN: Hey guys! So this is the first chapter of my crossover. FYI you probably won't get another chapter for a while. I want to write a few before I post more so I have so margin of error on my writing speed. I only posted this one because I want your guys' opinion on two things. You can put your answer in the comments.**

 **Q.1- So Danny left Amity before Danielle and before he got his ice powers. Obviously I'm going to put the ice powers in there, but do you guys want Danielle?**

 **Q.2- So at the end, Mabel thinks Dipper has a crush on Danny. This was originally meant to be a joke that never came up again, but if you guys want, I can basically make Danny into Wendy with the crush thing. Also, sorry if anyone seems OOC. This is my first Gravity Falls fic and I haven't written Danny in forever. If any of you were worried about how little interaction Danny and Mabel got, it's just because this episode is some centered around Dipper learning about the journal. Dipper and Mabel are separated during most of it, so I had to send him with one of them. And I wasn't going to send him with Mabel and Norman!**

 **So, thank you all for reading, and I hope to see your comments soon!**


	2. The Legend of the Gobblewonker

**AN: Sorry about the completely unoriginal name. Couldn't think of any modifications.**

Danny was exhausted. He had promised himself after he left that he wouldn't use his ghost powers anymore, but he didn't have a choice. They were all going to die if he didn't use his telekinesis to move the cart. It was a power he had been working on for a while. Of course he was still learning, so using it tired him out. Using it to move a golf cart at fast speeds-in human form as well- left him completely drained. He was surprised he didn't pass out earlier. He was also 80% sure Dipper saw his eyes glow green. He wanted to stay in bed and rest up, but he knew he had no normal reason to be this tired. He groaned and dragged himself out of bed. He walked downstairs to see the twins having some sort of syrup race.

"Go Sir Syrup!" Mabel yelled.

"Go Mountie Man!" Dipper yelled just as loud. He had learned a lot about the twins over the past few days. Dipper was a awkward, very intelligent boy who loved mysteries. Mabel was a very energetic, very social girl who was smarter than people gave her credit for. Mabel ended up winning by tapping the bottom of her bottle. Danny wondered if that counted as cheating. If it did, Dipper didn't say anything. That's when they both noticed Danny.

"Hey Danny!" Dipper said happily.

"Hello!" Mabel yelled in his ear. Somehow, in the 0.2 seconds Dipper was talking, she had been able to move right next to his ear.

"Mabel! Sensitive hearing!" Danny exclaimed and jumped back.

"Ho, ho, no way! Mable, Danny, check this out!" Dipper pointed to the magazine in his hand.

"Human sized hamster balls?" Mabel asked and then gasped. "I'm human sized!"

"That actually sounds really cool," Danny piped in. He would totally get one of those.

"No, no, guys, focus. Look at this" Dipper pointed to a monster photo contest ad. "We see weirder stuff every day! We didn't get any photos of those gnomes, did we? Danny shook his head.

"I got this beard hair!" Mabel exclaimed excitedly. She held up a beard hair. Danny scrunched up his face. That's really gross.

"Why did you save that?" Dipper asked and Mabel shrugged. Stan walked in.

"Good morning, knuckleheads. You know what day it is?" he asked.

"Um...happy anniversary?" Dipper said/asked.

"Mazel tov!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Wait, you're married?" Danny asked. Stan hit Dipper in the head with his newspaper.

"Ow!"

"It's family fun say, genius!" Stan walked to the fridge and got some milk. Danny looked at the label. It's expired. "We're cuttin' off work and having one of those, you know, bonding type deals." Danny really didn't expect this from Stan.

"Grunkle Stan, is this gonna be anything like our last family bonding day?" Dipper asked.

"Do I even want to know?" Danny asked. Mabel shuddered.

"The county jail was so cold." Danny was not expecting that.

"Um…" Stan started talking again.

"All right maybe I haven't been the best summer caretaker. But I swear, today we're gonna have some _real_ family fun. Danny, you're coming too. Now who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?"

"YAY!" The three of them screamed.

"What, what?" Dipper and Danny asked at the same time.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

As the three of them went flying in their seats for the thousandth time, Danny was starting to question.

"Woah woah!" Dipper sighed. "Blindfolds never lead to anything good."

"Wow! I feel like all my other senses are heightened. I can see with my fingers!" Mabel said.

"I don't think that's how it works, Mabel," Danny said as he heard Dipper laugh. What is going on over there? The car jumped again, making all of them jump five feet in the air. With their seatbelts on. How does that even work?

"Woah! Grunkle Stan, are _you_ wearing a blindfold?" Dipper asked.

"Ha, ha. Nah, but with these cataracts I might as well be. What is that, a woodpecker?" Stan replied. Then they drove off a cliff or something. Danny immediately started floating on instinct. He scolded himself and sat back down.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

"Okay, okay. Open 'em up!" Stan said. Danny took him blindfold off, and was bombarded by color and light. He squinted for a few seconds.

"Ta-da! It's fishing' season!" Stan exclaimed.

"Fishing?" Mabel asked.

"What're you playing at, old man?" Dipper asked. Meanwhile, Danny was ecstatic. He always loved to go fishing with his dad. And while it filled him with sad memories for a few seconds, he pushed them away. He was going to have a good time! He pumped his fist.

"Yes! I love fishing! I would always go fishing with my dad….." He trailed off, but scolded himself again for getting sad. "This'll be so much fun!" Dipper and Mabel looked at him in shock, but Stan smiled.

"See? This is the kind of attitude we need around here! You're gonna love it! The whole town's out here!" Danny saw a lot of people. Some of them he knew from when they visited the gift shop.

"That's some quality family bonding!" Stan said.

"Grunkle Stan, why do you wanna _bond_ with us all of a sudden?" Dipper asked suspiciously.

"Come on, this is gonna be great! I've never had fishing buddies before. The guys from the lodge won't go with me. They don't 'like' or 'trust' me," Stan said.

"I think he actually wants to fish with us," he heard Mabel say to Dipper. Danny was determined to get them in the mood.

"KID MEETING!" He yelled and walked over to a corner.

"Guys, parents, or guardians in this case, really like to spend time with their kids. And a lot of the time, they feel like they barely get to talk to them. I know this isn't the ideal activity, but Stan's trying, okay? Besides, you don't know how lucky you are. I would give anything to fish with my dad again," Danny said, trying to guilt trip them. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other. They seemed to be having some sort of twin moment here. Then Dipper nodded.

"Okay, we'll try it." Success!

"Meeting adjourned," Danny said and they all walked back to Grunkle Stan.

"Hey, I know what'll cheer you sad sacks up," Stan said and put a hat on the their heads. "Pow! Pines and….what's your last name Danny?"

"Um…" Danny debated telling them his last name. What harm could it do? "Fenton."

"Pines and Fenton family fishing hats! That-that's hand stitching, you know" Dipper's hat said "Dippy", the L in Mabel peeled off, and mine says "Denny". 'It's just gonna be you, me, and those goofy hats on a boat for ten hours!"

"Ten hours?" Dipper asked.

"I brought the joke book!" Stan held up a cringy joke book.

"No! NO!" Dipper yelled. Oh no. Danny's knew that his speech is being forgotten in their minds.

"There has to be a way out of this," Mabel said.

"Guys…." I said with a stern tone.

"Easy for you to say, you _like_ fishing!" Dipper hissed at Danny quietly. He does have a point.

"I SEEN IT! SEEN IT AGAIN!" Danny turned his head to see some crazy old man running from the dock, crashing into things. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrapdoodles away!" The crazy man started doing a weird dance. "Eh, ha ha hoo" He slapped his knee. "Ah, hee hee…"

"Awww….he's doing a happy jig!" Mabel said. The crazy man turned to Mabel.

"NOOOO! It's a jig of grave danger!" His instincts turned on, he didn't need this crazy man anywhere near the twins. He stepped in front of them and put his arms out. Dipper looked at him weirdly, but Mabel latched onto his arm. That snapped him out of the trance.

"Mabel!"

"I'm never letting go!" He sighed. He wasn't getting Mabel off until she wanted to come off. Then, a man looking to be in his thirties or forties came out with a spray bottle.

"Hey, hey! Now what did I tell you about scaring my customers? This is your last warning, Dad!" the man said. That was the crazy man's son? Wow…

"But I got proof this time, by gummity!" the crazy man went over to the dock, Danny reluctantly letting the twins follow. Well, really he was forced, since Mabel was still stuck to his arm. "BEHOLD! It's the Gobble-dy-wonker what done did it! It had a long neck like a gee-raffe! And wrinkly old skin like...this gentleman right here!" The crazy man pointed to Stan, who was picking his ear.

"Huh?"

"It chewed up my boat to smitheroons, and shim-sahammed over to Scuttlebutt Island! YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME!" the crazy man said.

"Attention all units! We got ourselves a crazy old man!" Said who looked to be the sheriff. Everyone except for the Pines and Danny started laughing at the old man. Poor guy. The guy's son shook his head. The old guy started walking off.

"Aww, donkey spittle! Aw, banjo polish!"

"Well, that happened. Now let's untie this boat and get out on that lake!" Stan said and stepped into a rickety old boat.

"Mabel, Danny, did you hear what that old dude said?" Dipper asked. Mabel finally let go of Danny's arm to mimic the old guy.

"Aww, donkey shpittle!" Danny doesn't think that's what Dipper meant.

"The other thing. About the monster. If we can snag a photo of it, we can split the prize between the three of us."

"That's three thirds!" Mabel exclaimed. Way to point out the obvious.

"Imagine what you could do with...carry the one….around 333 dollars!" Dipper said. Mabel dazed off in some fantasy and started giggling. Dipper sighed and started snapping his fingers in front of Mabel's face.

"Mabel! Mabel?"

"Dipper, I am one million percent on board with this!" That's when Danny remembered.

"Guys, what about Stan?"

"He'll be fine! He's used to fishing by himself!" Mabel said.  
"That's not the point!" Dipper and Mabel ignored Danny.

"Grunkle Stan! Change of plans. We're taking that boat to Scuttlebutt island, and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"

"Monster hunt! Monster hunt!" Dipper and Mabel chanted. The crazy old guy from earlier joined them. Danny watched him like a hawk.

"Monster hunt!" They all chanted until Dipper and Mabel stopped and stared at the old dude.

"Monster...Eh….I'll go" They he left again. Thank goodness. Then here was a loud honking noise and Soos pulled up in his boat.

"You dudes say somethin' about a monster hunt?" he asked.

"Soos!" Mabel yelled.

"Wassup, hambone?" They fistbumped and made explosion sounds. "Dude, you could totally use my boat for your hunt. It's got a steering wheel, chairs, normal boat stuff" Stan interrupted him.

"All right, all right, let's think this through. Ya kids could waste your time on some epic monster-finding adventure, _or_ you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan!" The twins looked at Stan, and, Soos, then Stan again. Danny already knew what their decision would be. He walked over to Stan while the twins got on the boat.

"Stan, look. I would love to come and fish with you all day, honestly. I love fishing. But, the twins, I need to keep them safe. Soos is great, but he's not really going to provide much protection. I'm really sorry, and I'll try to convince them to come back. Pro tip, if you want them to hang out with you, take them bowling or something," Danny said and waited for Stan's response.

"Yeah, I get it. You should go. My main priority is keeping them safe. Watch over them, and if they get hurt, you're in big trouble. Thanks for the tip."

"Are you coming Danny?" Mabel asked him.

"Coming!" He yelled and walked over to the boat. He turned back and smiled at Stan, who looked really hurt. As, they sailed off, Dipper and Mabel decided to rub salt in the wound.

"We made the right choice!" Mabel yelled.

"Guys, can you not? You really hurt Stan," Danny asked. They didn't seem to hear him.

"Hoist the anchor!" Dipper said and Soos pulled up a block of cement. How was the boat sailing if the anchor was down?

"Raise the flag!" Mabel held up a beach towel. Where did that come from?

"We're gonna find that Gobblewonker!" Mabel yelled.

"We're gonna win that photo contest!" Dipper yelled.

"Do any of you dudes have sunscreen?" Soos asked.

"We're gonna...go get sunscreen!" Dipper yelled.

"Yay!" Mabel and Soos yelled. They turned the boat around.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Dipper was pacing in front of Mabel and Soos. Danny was off to the side, leaning against the railing. He had to protect Dipper and Mabel, but he didn't have to be happy about it. He's mad at them for hurting Stan like that.

"Alight. If we wanna win this contest, we've gotta do it right! Think. What's the number one problem with most monster hunts?" Soos answered right away.

"You're a side character, then you die within the first five minutes of the movie. Dude am I a side character? Do ya ever think about stuff like that?" Everyone looked at him weird. Dipper shook his head.

No, no, no. Camera trouble. Say Bigfoot shows up. Soos, be bigfoot." Soos stroke a weird Bigfoot pose.

"There he is! Bigfoot!" He patted his life vest. "Uh-oh, no camera!" Then he pulled a camera out of the vest. "Oh wait, here's one! Aw, no film!" Danny had to laugh at Dipper's terrible acting.

"Dipper, don't ever become an actor" Danny said. Mabel laughed.

"Oh yeah, when he was little, he wanted to be an actor. He would make these cringy movies about ghosts. Even when he wanted to act, he was still obsessed with the supernatural. Danny, when we get back, I'll totally show you one." Dipper blushed.

"Mabel! Don't show him those! Anyway, that's not the point! The point is, the main problem with monster hunts is the cameras! That's why I bought twenty one disposable cameras. Two on my ankle, three in my jacket, four for each of you, three extras in this bag, and one...under my hat" He lifted up his hat to show one camera. Danny doubts that'll stay there. Soos tried to take a picture, but it was backwards.

"Aw, dude!" He screamed and threw the camera overboard.

"You see? This is exactly why you need backup cameras. We still have twenty!" Dipper explained. Mabel threw one at a seagull flying over her head and Danny threw one overboard just because he can.

"Eighteen! Okay, guys, I repeat; don't lose your cameras!" Seeing Dipper this frustrated is hilarious.

"Wait, lose the cameras?" Soos asked.

"DON'T" Dipper screeched and Danny covered his ears, losing two cameras in the process.

"Dude, I just threw three away" Soos said.

"Thirteen! All right! We still have thirteen camera-" He was cut off as he accidentally crushed one with his fist. "Twelve. We have twelve cameras."

"So what's the plan? Throw more cameras overboard or what?" Mabel asked.

"NO! No. Okay. You'll be lookout, Soos can work the steering wheel, Danny can help Mabel, and I'll be captain" Dipper said. Danny decided he was just going to stay here.

"What? Why do you get to be captain? What about Mabel, huh? Ma-bel, Ma-bel, Ma-bel, Ma-bel!

'I'm not sure that's a good idea" Dipper said.

"I agree" Danny said.

"What about co-captain?" Mabel asked.

"There is no such thing as co-captain" Mabel looked like she had an idea.

"Aw, whoops," she said and tossed a camera into the water. Down to 11 cameras.

"Okay, fine! You can be co-captain." Dipper exclaimed.

"Can I be associate co-captain?" Soos asked.

"As co-captain, I authorize that request. Mabel said.

"Well, as first co-captain, or number one order of business is to lure the monster out with this" Dipper pointed at a barrel of fish food.

"Permission to taste some?" Soos asked. Danny didn't know why Soos thought that is a good idea.

"Granted."

"Permission co-granted."

"Permission associate co-granted."

Soos went over and licked some fish food. He gagged and started coughing. He wiped his tongue.

"Dude, I don't know what I expected that to taste like!" Soos said and they all started laughing.

"Oh, Soos….." Mabel walked over to a pelican and made it talk.

"Hey! How's it going?" she asked the pelican

"It's going awesome! Bow bow, buh bow bow!"

"Mabel, leave that thing alone," Dipper said. Danny walked over to her.

"Hey Mabel make him say…." he leaned into Mabel's ear. "Have a positive attitude! It's peliCAN not peliCAN! Mabel laughed.

"What?" Dipper asked and Danny shook his head.

"Hey look, I'm drinking water" She put water in her mouth. "Twinkle, twinkle, little.." She started choking and the pelican flew away.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing lookout?" Dipper asked. There was suddenly a volleyball in Mabel's hand.

"Look out!" She threw the volleyball at Dipper and hit him on the arm. He held his arm and shivered. Mabel laughed at him.

"But seriously, I'm on it." The boat stopped and everyone lurched forward. They had crashed into Skuttlebutt Island. "See? We're here! I'm a lookout genius! Hamster ball, here we come!" The four of them started walking towards the forest. Suddenly, Danny saw a blue wisp come out of his mouth, as well as his whole body feeling cold. Oh no. Not here? How did they find him?

"Hey guys, I gotta go to the restroom. I'll be right back" Danny said and leave before anyone can answer. Did he really want to go ghost? He hadn't done it since he left, but if he didn't, someone could get hurt. He let the familiar rings wash over him and felt his heart stop beating. He started looking for the ghost. He had been flying around for about five minutes when he found it. But instead of a ghost, he found a portal? He thought that only man-made portals existed. That's why he took the blueprints for the ghost portal when he left. Maybe he could rebuild it, visit some of his allies. He flew into the GZ and saw that it was near Skulker's Island. He didn't want to deal with him right now, so he was about to leave when he heard someone call out to him.

"Hey Ghost Child! Death has been too boring since you left Amity? Care to explain?" Skulker asked.

"Not really, no. I don't feel like dealing with you right now, so if you could get out of my face, that would be great!" He replied and flew back out the portal. Unfortunately, Skulker flew out right behind him.

"Now that you're here again, I will have your pelt!" Skulker said.

"Ew! Who are you?" someone asked. Danny turned around to see Dipper, Mabel, and Soos standing behind them.

"Of course. Just my luck that you three would find us," Danny said and turned around. Not saying anything, he just turned around and blasted Skulker.

"You three need to get out of here! It's dangerous!" While he was talking, Skulker shot him in the back with one of his missiles.

"Are these humans important to you Ghost Child?" Skulker asked with a grin on his face. He turned around again.

"Don't you dare, Skulker, don't you dare." Skulker just smirked and shot a missile at them.

"No!" Danny screamed and put a shield up around them.

"I'm done playing Skulker," Danny said. He looked behind Skulker to see the portal closing. He rammed into Skulker at full speed knocking him into the portal right before it closed. Danny sighed.

"Great, now he's going to go tell everyone where I am. Just frickin great" I closed my eyes.

"Woah, are you a ghost or something?" he heard Mabel ask. Crap. He had forgotten about them.

"Mabel, be careful, we don't know his intentions," Dipper said.

"Dudes, he just protected us. I think he's fine" Soos replied. He wasn't going to do this. He just turned invisible and flew back to where they were before. He changed back and waited for them to come back.

"Danny! Danny, guess what we saw? So we were looking for the monster thing right? Well we saw some sort of ghost instead! It was fighting another robot ghost thing, and he totally protected us when the robot ghost attacked us! And then when the fight was over, he just disappeared! It was so cool! Did you get any pictures, Dippy?" Mabel asked.

"Oh crap!" Dipper said and slapped his forehead. "And don't call me that. It's weird actually, the one ghost looked a lot like you." Danny was expecting this. Dipper is a pretty observant boy, he would have had to noticed the similarities.

"The robot one?" he asked, faking confusion.

"No, the kid. You guys looked weirdly alike" Dipper said and narrowed his eyes at Danny.

"Weird" Danny said and shrugged. "Let's keep looking for that lake monster!" Everyone cheered.

 **(AN: Sorry if that was absolutely horrible. I'm horrible at writing fights. Any tips would be welcomed!)**

They suddenly heard a growling noise in the distance. They all looked around.

"Dude, did you guys hear that?" Soos asked.

"No, Soos, obviously you're the only one who heard the very loud growling" Danny said.

"What was that? Was it your stomach?" Mabel asked and Soos shook his head.

"Nah, my stomach normally sounds like whale noises" Soos said and Mabel put her ear to his stomach. Apparently this was true because Mabel looked like she was in awe.

"Wow. So majestic" Mabel said. A random possum grabbed their lantern and ran away. Danny could see fine, but he was sure everyone else is having trouble.

"Our lantern! Aww, I can't see anything!

"Guys, I don't know if this is safe anymore…" Danny said.

"Danny, we battle weird stuff every day! Besides, imagine what would happen if we got that picture!" Dipper exclaimed. They were silent for a few seconds.

"I'm in!" Dipper suddenly yelled.

"Me, too!" Mabel agreed. They both ran off.

"Kids!" Danny yelled. "Let's go Soos…" They walked in silence until Soos and Mabel started rapping.

"My name is Mabel! It rhymes with table! It also rhymes with….gabel! It also rhymes with….Danny?" Danny thought for a second

"It also rhymes with stable!" He supplied.

"Dude, we should be writing this down" Soos said.

"Guys, guys, guys! You hear something?" Dipper asked. They heard the growling noise again. A flock of birds flew away from some trees in the distance. "This is it! This is it!" Dipper and Mabel started punching each other, making excited noises. Danny doesn't get them. Soos found a stick and followed them. Danny picked one up too. "Everyone get your cameras ready!" Dipper said and everyone took out their cameras. "Ready? GO!" Everyone started yelling, snapping pictures like maniacs. It turned out to just be beavers. "But...but what was that noise then? I heard a monster noise!" Dipper asked, and everyone agreed with him. They looked over to a beaver holding an old chainsaw, when it turned on, it made the monster noise they all heard earlier.

"Sweet! Beaver with a chainsaw" Soos said and started taking pictures of it.

"Maybe that old guy was crazy after all" Dipper said.

"He _did_ use the word 'scrapdoodle'" Mabel replied. Dipper sighed.

"Hey. We can always go to the forest and take a picture of literally _any_ of the weird stuff there," Danny said, trying to make them feel better. They all noticed Soos taking pictures of the beavers.

"Ohh, yeah! Work it! Work it! Nice! Nice! Gimme another one of those! Yeah, I like that one."

"What're we gonna say to Grunkle Stan? We ditched him over nothing" Dipper said and threw a stone into the lake. Danny was about to tell them to apologize, but the ground started shaking.

"Hey….guys, do you feel that?" Dipper asked. The rock under him sank under the water and Dipper swam back to the shore. They all saw the Gobblewonker start swimming away. Dipper started taking picture. He looked back at the three of them. "This is it! Come on! This is our chance!" They all saw the Gobblewonker start to swim back towards them. "What's wrong with you guys?" he asked as the Gobblewonker rose behind them.

"Dipper get away from there" Danny told him.

"No! It's not that hard, all right? All you gotta do is point and shoot. Like this!" Dipper turned around and saw the Gobblewonker. It roared and Dipper dropped his camera.

"Run!" Soos yelled. Dipper seemed to be frozen, so Danny pushed him and Dipper started running. The Gobblewonker knocked over a tree, which was about to crush Dipper, but he pushed him into Mabel. They both rolled out of the way. Danny went intangible at the last second.

"Danny!" Dipper yelled, looking at him. "How did you escape?"

"I moved out of the way" Danny replied.

"Get back to the boat, HURRY!" Soos yelled. The Gobblewonker snapped at them, and Mabel hopped on Soos' back. Dipper got out a camera and pointed it at the Gobblewonker, but he tripped over a root and dropped it.

"The picture!" Dipper yelled and tried to go after if, but Danny picked him up. He held Dipper against his chest and kept running.

"Dude, if it makes you feel any better, I got tons of pictures of those beavers, dude!" Soos said.

"WHY WOULD THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?" Dipper screamed, pretty much right in Danny's ear. He flinched.

"Dipper, how many times do we have to have this conversation? You'd think Mabel would be the one constantly hurting my ears!" Danny yelled back at him.

"Sorry!" They all saw the boat in the distance. They all got back on, with Soos being last.

"Let's get out of here, dudes!" Soos yelled. They started sailing, with the Gobblewonker behind them. Dipper turned around with a camera in his hand.

"All right! This is it!" he yelled.

"Dipper, you've said that about four times today," Danny pointed out. Right after he said that, he heard Dipper start yelling.

"Cracked lense? Soos, get a photo!" Dipper and Danny turned around to see Soos throwing cameras at the Gobblewonker. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He yelled.

"Oh! I still got one left! Don't worry, dude!" Soos threw a camera at Dipper, but it missed and hit the wall instead, breaking. The Gobblewonker dived into the water and began to chase them.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Dipper yelled at Soos. They drove past Stan, getting water all over him.

"SORRY STAN! WE'RE GETTING CHASED BY A LAKE MONSTER!" Danny yelled at him. He doubted he got much besides "Sorry Stan."

"SOOS! BEAVERS!" Dipper yelled. The boat crashed into an old boat and beavers flew everywhere, biting their boat and them.

"Ah, beavers! Oh, no!" Danny noticed beavers biting Dipper's hat, and Mabel struggling to get one off her arm. A beaver lunged at Soos, who stumbled away from the wheel. Danny took his place. Danny had driven a boat once or twice. He could do this. They drive through an area with a bunch of boaters, who all got overturned. The Gobblewonker swiped at them multiple times, eventually destroying the top of the boat. They drove through some glass that two people were holding. They were approaching a waterfall now.

"WHERE DO I GO?" Danny screamed at no one in particular. There was some stuttering until he heard Dipper answer him.

"GO INTO THE FALLS! I think there might be a cave behind there!"

"Well, let's hope you're right!" Danny yelled and screamed as the boat went through the waterfall and into the cave behind it. Their boat crashed into the dirt. Soos's shirt got ripped off. They all looked at the waterfall, only to see the Gobblewonker stuck in the waterfall.

"It's stuck!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Dipper, thank goodness you carry that book around with you everywhere," Danny said.

"Ha ha! Yeah! Wait….it's stuck?" Dipper looked around, probably looking for a camera. Mabel lifted up his hat to reveal the camera he had put there. Wow. Danny thought it would have fallen and taken the hat with him.

"Boop!" Mabel said and Dipper laughed. He took multiple pictures of the Gobblewonker.

"Didja get a good one?" Mabel asked. Dipper jumped up and down excitedly.

"They're all good ones!" He yelled excitedly and hugged his sister.

"Woo! Hamster ball!" She yelled. They all looked at the Gobblewonker when a rock fell onto it and it made an electric noise.

"What the…?" Dipper asked and touched it's side. "Huh?"

"What is it?" Danny asked. Dipper stepped on the Gobblewonker and Danny bit his lip. It made a hollow metallic noise. Dipper climbed up onto the Gobblewonker. Danny followed him.

"Careful, dudes!" Soos yelled.

"I've got this! Hold on!" Dipper yelled back at him. Dipper and Danny climbed over to the other side.

"Guys! Come on!" Danny yelled. When they got there, they opened the door they found. They discovered the old man from before.

"Work the bellows and the...eh? Aw, banjo polish" he said when he noticed them.

"Wha- Yo-You? You made this? W-w-why?"

"Wel, I….I, uh...I just wanted attention" the man said.

"I still don't understand"

"Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brain wave generator, and then I learned to operate a shaft-stick with ma beard!"

"Okay, yeah. But _why_ did you do it?" Mabel asked.

"Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays attention to you anymore. My own son hasn't visited me in months! So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen ton aquatic robut!" He started laughing maniacally. "In retrospect, it seems a little contrived. You just don't know the lengths us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family." Dipper and Mabel looked at their fishing hats and sighed. Really? After his speech, they still went on their crazy monster trip, but this old man made them realize their mistake?

"Dude. I guess the real lake monster is you two. Heh heh! Sorry, that just like-boom-popped into my head there."  
"You're the one who gave them a boat, Soos," Danny reminded him. Soos looked down too. He realized that they weren't they only ones in the wrong though. He didn't have to go with the twins. Soos could have protected them fine.

"So, did you ever talk to your son about how you felt?" Mabel asked.

"No, sir, I got to work straight on the robut!" A projector presented the blueprints of the Gobblewonker. "I made plenty of rubuts in my day!" The old man pressed a button and it showed a newspaper with a robot pterodactyl breathing fire on a town and the word "Chaos". "Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron," the man pushed the button again and it showed a picture of a man. "Or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party," he pushed the button one more time and it showed a large robot terrorizing a town with the word "Disaster". "And I constructed an eighty ton SHAME BOT THAT EXPLODED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA!" the man started laughing like a maniac again. "Well, time to get back to work on my death ray!" the man went back into the chamber and Danny had an idea.

"Hey guys, wait for me, okay?" Then he followed the man. "Hey, so I was wondering if you could build something for me? It's a portal, and it would have to be hidden. I like inventing and stuff, but this is too advanced for me. Could you help?" he asked the man and pulled out the GZ portal blueprints.  
"Hmm...well it looks like a hoowilly of a build, but I think I could manage it. Here's my card, you can find me in the junkyard. Now leave me be before I vaporize you with my newly finished DEATH RAY!" He handed him a card that simply said "Old Man McGucket" on it. Danny left.

"What was that about?" Dipper asked.

"Um..just wanted to look at his blueprints" Danny replied. Dipper took out his camera.

"Well, so much for the photo contest." Danny wanted to point out that they had a forest full of strange creatures, but Mabel started talking before he could.

"You still have one roll of film left" she said.

"Whaddaya wanna do with it?" Dipper asked.

 **SCENE TRANSFER**

Danny saw Stan sigh and look down. He felt guilty again.

"Hey! Over here!" Dipper yelled and took a photo of Stan.

"What the-kids? I thought you two were off playing spin the bottle with Soos and Danny!" Stan asked.

"Well, we spent all day trying to find a 'legendary' dinosaur," Dipper started.

"But we realized, the only dinosaur we wanna hang out with is right here," Mabel finished. They both looked done, but they weren't off the hook yet.

"Dipper, Mabel, what do you say?" he prodded.

"We're sorry, Grunkle Stan," they both said.

"And I'm sorry too. Soos could've handled them fine" Danny said.

"Save your sympathy! I've been having a great time without you! Makin' friends, talking' to my reflection-I had a run-in with the police! Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now, so that'll be fun."

"So...I guess there isn't room in that boat for four more?" Dipper asked. Stan just glared at them. Dipper and Mabel put their hats on. Danny reluctantly put his on. Stan's gaze softened.

"You...knuckleheads ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed?" Stan asked.

"Five bucks says you can't do it!" Dipper challenged.

"You're on!" Dipper got into the boat.

"Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed, _plus_ me singing at the top of my lungs!" Mabel raised the stakes. Danny, Mabel and Soos got into the boat.

"I like those odds!" Stan said.

"Hey Stan!" Danny said.

"What?"

"I bet ten more bucks that you can't do it with your eyes closed, Mabel singing at the top of her lungs, and me whispering curse words in your ear!" Stan smirked.

"You're on, kid."

They lost twenty bucks that day.

 **END**

 **Word count: 5743**

 **AN: This chapter feels kind of weird to me, but that might be because I don't like this episode that much. Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Bye!**


	3. Headhunters

Dipper and Mabel were watching TV. Dipper was eating popcorn, while Mabel was knitting a sweater. And who said multitasking was impossible? Well, actually it is, but it's Mabel. She's impossible. Dipper has lived with her twelve years, and has yet to figure out how she ingests all that glitter without dying. Mabel reached for the popcorn, but Dipper slapped her hand. He gave his attention back to the TV.

"I'm afraid your services won't be required here, sir. My men have examined the evidence, and this is obviously an accident." Ducktective started quacking, but the subtitles explained what he was saying.

"An accident, constable? Or is it….murder?" he asked.

"What?" the constable asked.

"Ducktective will return after these messages" An announcer announced. Mabel dropped her sweater.

"That duck is a genius!" she gasped. Dipper shrugged.

"Eh, it's easier to find clues when you're that close to the ground," he said confidently. Mabel put her hands on her hips.

"Are you saying you could outwit Ducktective?" she asked suspiciously.

"Mabel, I have very keen powers of observation. For example, just by smelling your breath, I can tell that you've been eating.." she leaned in and he smelled her breath. "..an entire tube of toothpaste?" he asked, alarmed. Mabel giggled.

"It was so sparkly…" she trailed off. Soos ran in.

"Hey dudes, you'll never guess what I found!" he said excitedly.

"Buried treasure!" Dipper exclaimed.

"Buried-" Mabel stopped talking and pushed Dipper playfully. "Hey, I was gonna say that!" Soos made a "come on" motion and the two of them started walking.

"So, I was cleaning up, when I found this secret door, hidden behind the wallpaper. It's crazy bonkers creepy!" Soos opened the door and they all saw around twenty wax sculptures.

"Woah! It's a secret wax museum!" Dipper exclaimed breathlessly.

"They're so life-like" Mabel said with the same tone. Dipper pointed to a wax figure that looked like Stan.

"Except for that one" he said dully.

"Hello!" the figure exclaimed and they all screamed in surprise. The figure, which they now realized was Stan, chuckled. "It's just me, your Grunkle Stan!" they all screamed again and ran out of the room. When they had escaped, Dipper turned to his sister.

"Come on, Mabel, we gotta show this to Danny!" he exclaimed. Mabel rolled her eyes.

"Of course that would be your response" she said with a smirk. Dipper sighed internally. When was she going to get it through her thick head that he doesn't like Danny! He thinks.

"Let's just go" They approached the gift shop and heard Danny talking.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack, what can I do for-oh. What do you want, Plasmius?" they heard Danny say. Dipper looked at his sister. She shrugged.

"Look Daniel, I just want to talk," they heard an older man say.

"Yeah, well I don't. How did you find me, anyway?"

"Skulker" Dipper made a confused face. Who's Skulker? That's when he remembered. It was the robot ghost that teen ghost fought! How does Danny know about him?

"Damn it. I knew he'd tattle" Danny said.

"Exactly. And he's off telling all the other ghosts where you are as well. Leave this place, come-" the older man was cut off.

"No. First off, no. It's way too risky to even walk into your house-castle thing. Especially when I'm still grieving. And two, I've made friends here. I like it here." Danny responded quickly.

"Daniel, you're being unreasonable. What do you mean it's too risky? If this is because of our history-" Danny cut him off once again.

"It's not that. Although, our history isn't exactly encouraging either. Look, Vlad. I'm not coming with you. Leave before I go ghost and make you" Danny said. Go ghost? What the heck does that mean? Dipper knew Danny was suspicious. He's going to find out what it is. He's made a mental list of clues.

One: Danny's eyes can glow green

Two: Danny did something to the golf cart. It made him really tired.

Three: Danny looks like a ghost.

Four: Danny knows the name of a ghost.

Five: Danny's last name is Fenton

Six: Danny knows someone named Vlad Plasmius.

Seven: Danny has bad history with said Vlad Plasmius.

Eight: Danny can "Go Ghost". Whatever that means.

Not much to go off, but Dipper is confident he can figure it out. He can also ask Danny some unsuspicious questions. Knowing where he used to live might help. The internet might also be helpful.

"Alright, Daniel. Have it your way. But rest assured, I will be back, and you will come with me" the older man said and Dipper heard the door open.

"That's what you've said every other time!" Danny yelled as the man left. Mabel moved as if to go talk to Danny, but Dipper stopped her.

"Mabel, wait. We don't want Danny to be onto us. Wait a few minutes so it doesn't look like we conveniently walked in right after the man left" Dipper whispered and Mabel nodded. After around two minutes, Dipper nodded and they both walked in.

"Danny! Danny! Guess what we found!" Mabel exclaimed as she ran up to him.

"Buried treasure?" Danny asked. Dipper wondered how all three of their minds first went to that.

"No! A wax museum! Come on, come see it! It's so cool!" Mabel continued.

"Do you think Stan will let me get off work? Wendy's skipping work again, so someone has to be here" Danny asked. Just then, Wendy walked in.

"Hey Danny. Hey Dipper. Hey Mabel" she greeted all of them.

"Hey Wendy, do you mind taking over for a bit? The twins want to show me something."

"Sure. I'll be here, not working" she said.

"Okay, let's go." Mabel grabbed Danny's hand and pulled him into the house. Dipper followed them. When they walked back in, Stan was still there.

"Finally. Now for the tour! Behold the Gravity Falls wax museum! It was one of our most popular attractions….before I forgot all about it" Dipper rolled his eyes. Of course Grunkle Stan would do that. "I got 'em all! Genghis Khan, Sherlock Holmes," Stan looked at what Dipper knew to be Larry King. "I don't know, some kind of goblin man?" he asked. Dipper looked around and shuddered.

"Is anyone else getting the creeps here?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah, it might just be because we're in a room that hasn't been used in years though," Danny replied. Stan walked over to a puddle of wax.

"And now for my personal favorite. Wax Abraham Lincoln, right over-" Stan cut himself off as he saw that Wax Abraham Lincoln is a was puddle on the floor. "Oh! Oh no! Come one, who left the blinds open? Wax John Wilkes Booth, I'm looking in your direction!"

"Actually, it was probably you, Stan" Danny commented.

"Cheer up, Grunkle Stan. Where's that smile?" Mabel asked singsongingly. Stan grunted.

"Beep, bop, boop!" She exclaimed and poked Stan in the face.

"Ow."

"Don't worry, Grunkle Stan. I'll make you a new wax figure from all this wax!" Mabel offered.

"You really think you can make one of these puppies?" Stan asked hopefully.

"Grunkle Stan, I'm an arts and crafts master. Why do you think I always have this glue gun stuck to my arm?" She held up her arm, which now had a glue gun on it. She shook her arm and made a frustrated noise. There are so many things wrong with that.

"How did you get that on there?" Danny asked.

"How would you even use that?" Dipper asked.

"All very good questions that I can't answer at the moment!" Mabel responded. She ran out of the room dramatically.

/

Dipper was going to check on Mabel, with a soda in hand. Mabel shot up and Dipper choked on the pit in his Pitt Cola.

"Dipper! What do you think of my wax figure idea?" Mabel asked. She showed him a picture of what looked like a centaur, but the top was a princess with a wand, the horse had a head, and the front two legs were human. There's also a lot of pink. "She's part fairy princess, and part _horse_ fairy princess!" Dipper never ceased to be amazed by Mabel's creativity. Maybe this idea shouldn't be put into action, though.

"Um….maybe you should carve something from real life" he suggested. He was secretly hoping Mabel would decide to carve _him_ but he didn't get his hopes up. Mabel showed him another picture, which looked pretty self-explanatory.

"Like a waffle, with big arms!"

"Y-okay…...or, you know, something else. Like-like someone in your family" he said nervously. Stan walked in.

"Kids, have you seen my pants?" he asked. He put one leg on a random briefcase on the floor and made a "looking" pose. Mabel turned around.

"Oh, muse. You work in mysterious ways" she breathed. Stan looked at Dipper.

"Why is your sister talking to the ceiling?" Stan asked. Mabel turned around again.

"Okay, out! I need time to make my masterpiece!" Mabel said and make a shooing motion.

/

After two hours of hanging out with Danny(and sometimes Wendy, whenever she showed up), Mabel brought them all into the room. Dipper was impressed. How had Mabel been able to construct this in only _two hours_? Soos, Dipper, and Danny were all looking at Wax Stan.

"Wow…." Danny said in awe. Mabel walked backwards.

"I think….it needs more glitter" she stated. While Dipper didn't agree, it's Mabel's art, so she can do what she wants.

"Agreed" Soos said and gave Mabel a bucket of glitter that came out of nowhere. Dipper reminded himself to add that to the "Randomly Appearing Items" list. She threw all the glitter onto Wax Stan, all of it landing on it. Dipper wondered how none of that got on the floor. He decides he doesn't care, as long as it doesn't get on _him_. Glitter takes forever to get off. Stan walked in with his pants, but missing shoes.

"I found my pants but now I'm missing my-" he stopped talking as he noticed Wax Stan. He fell over. "Ahh!"

"What do you think?" Mabel asked.

"I think….the Wax Museum's back in business!" Stan exclaimed and threw his hands up. Mabel pumped her fist.

/

Dipper, Danny, and Wendy were working the ticket Stan. Dipper was surprised at how many people came.

"I can't believe how many people showed up," Dipper told Wendy.

"I know, right? Your uncle probably bribed them or something" she replied. Dipper reached into his pocket.

"He bribed me" he said and held up a five dollar bill. Wendy held up a five dollar bill as well.

"Aw really? I did this for free!" Danny complained and they all laughed. Then, Stan started talking.

"You all know me folks! Town darling, !" Stan said and Danny got up. Dipper looked at him, confused.

"Where are you going?" he asked Danny.

"Stan told me to go get the pizza he put on the fliers when he started his speech" Danny replied and walked away. He looked at Wendy. He'd never been alone with her before. It was….weird, but nice. Even if they weren't actually talking. He directed his attention back to Stan.

"As you know, I always bring the people of this fair town novelties and befuddlements, the likes of which the world has never known. But enough about me. Behold...me!" He exclaimed and pulled the tarp off Wax Stan. Soos pressed a key on his keyboard for a fanfare sound. Then he made a "Yeah!" sound multiple times. Dipper chuckled as only two people clapped and someone coughed.

"And now a word from our own Mabelangelo!" Stan said and handed the microphone to Mabel.

"It's Mabel. Thank you for coming! I made this sculpture with my own two hands!" she threw up her hands. "It's covered with my blood, sweat, tears, and other fluids!" Dipper wondered what she meant by other fluids. Dipper is _really_ hoping it's the glitter. The audience made disgusted noises. Mabel chuckled. "Yeah. I will now take questions" she declared. Mabel pointed to the old man that made the Gobblewonker.

"Old Man Mcgucket, local kook. Are the wax figures alive? And follow up question, can I survive the wax man uprising?" he asked.

"Um….yes! Next question!" She pointed to Toby Determined. He was holding a turkey baster as if it was a microphone.

"Tody Determined, Gravity Falls gossiper. Do you really think this constitutes a wonder of the world?" he asked.

"Your microphone's a turkey baster, Toby" Stan cut in. Toby looked at his "microphone"

"It certainly is…"

"Next question" Stan said and pointed to a who looked like a reporter.

"Sharndra Jimenez, a _real_ reporter. Your flyers promised free pizza with admission to this event." She showed Stan the flyer that said FREE PIZZA at the bottom. "Is this true?" Uh oh. Danny isn't back yet. Other audience members started murmuring to each other.

"That was a typo. Good night, everyone!" Stan must have panicked or something, Dipper couldn't think of any other reason Stan would do that. He used a smoke bomb and everyone stood up furiously. Stan ran past Dipper and Wendy and grabbed the cash register. All the audience members started wreaking havoc, breaking things. Manly Dan walked up to one of the poles and punched it.

"IN YOUR _FACE_!" He screamed. Danny walked in with the pizza as Manly Dan walked out. He looked at him weirdly.

"I leave for what, twenty minutes, and I come back to this?" Danny asked. He walked over to Dipper and Wendy's table.

"Um, explanation?" he asked.

"Stan panicked or something when someone asked for pizza and you weren't back yet. He said the free pizza was a typo and everyone freaked out," Dipper explained. Danny winced.

"Wow. Sorry guys"

"It's chill. It's kinda funny to see everyone running around like this" Wendy said.

"I don't know. Someone could get hurt" Danny argued. Wendy rolled her eyes.

"Come on man, it's fine. You're a teenager, teenagers enjoy this kind of stuff" Danny muttered something under his breath.

"Well, on the bright side, we get pizza tonight!" Dippe said, trying to weaken the tense atmosphere Danny and Wendy had created. Danny smiled.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go inside" Danny said and Dipper watched him leave.

"Well, my shift's over, so I'm gonna go home. Bye, Dip" Wendy said and started to walk away. Dipper waved.

/

Everyone was out in the living room, except for Danny, who was still in their room. Stan was counting the money they got from the opening, Mabel was polishing Wax Stan, and Dipper was reading the journal. Again.

"Hot pumpkin pie! Look at all this cash! And I owe it all to one person" Mabel looked up expectantly. "This guy!" Stan exclaimed and pointed to Wax Stan. Mabel punched him playfully.

"Oof" Stan gave Mabel a noogie. "Yeah, you too, you little gremlin. Now you kids wash up. We got another long day of fleecing tomorrow. Go, go!" he said and they rushed out of the room. When they got up there, they started brushing their teeth until Mabel took hers out of her mouth.

Dipper, you wanna do a toothbrush race?" She asked. Even though Dipper knew Mabel would win, she always did, he nodded. Before they could start, they heard Stan screaming. They cleaned their faces from toothpaste and ran downstairs. They saw Stan freaking out in the living room.

"Wax Stan! He's been…..murdered!" he exclaimed. Dipper heard the clock bong three times. Mabel fainted and Dipper caught her. They immediately called the police.

/

"I got up to use the john, right? And when I come back, blammo! He's headless!" Stan explained frantically.

"My expert handcrafting, besmirched. BESMIRCHED!" Mabel cried. Dipper didn't really see the big deal, considering it was just wax, but it made his sister upset, so he is going figure out who did this. He put his hand on Mabel's shoulder.

"Who would do something like this?" Dipper asked and looked at Sheriff Blubs.

"What's your opinion, Sheriff Blubs?" the other police officer asked.

"Look, we'd love to help you folks, but let's face the facts…..this case is unsolvable" Blubs declared.

"What?" all three of them asked. No! That's not what police officers do! They look for clues, talk to witnesses, take photos! They don't just give up without trying!

"You take that back, Sheriff Blubs!" Stan yelled.

"You're kidding right? There must be evidence, motives. You know, I could help if you want." he offered shyly.

"He's really good. He figured out who was eating out tin cans!" Mabel backed him up. With Mabel's confinence boost, he was able to speak louder.

"All signs pointed to the goat" he said and pointed at nothing in particular.

"Yeah, yeah! Let the boy help. He's got a little brain up in his head," Stan encouraged. The two police officers just laughed.

"Oooh! Would you look at what we got here! City boy thinks he's gonna solve a mystery with his fancy computer phone!" Blubs taunted. Dipper doesn't even have a phone!

"City booooy! City boooooy!" the other police officer laughed as well.

"You are adorable!" Blubs exclaimed and Dipper felt embarrassment fill up his stomach. He _hates_ being called adorable. Adorable is weak, adorable is small, adorable is, is, is, _cute_. And Dipper wants to be anything but cute. Dipper wants to prove to people that he's strong, that he can fight his own battles, instead of having his sister fight them for him. But these are insecurities no one knows, not even Mabel.

"Adorable?" Dipper squeaked. The two police officers laughed. Dipper looked down.

"Look, PJs, how about you leave the investigating to the grown ups, okay?" Blubs asked. Someone started talking on one of their walkie talkie.

"Attention, all units. Steve is about to fit an entire cantaloupe in his mouth. Repeat, an entire cantaloupe!" they said.

"It's a 23-16!" the police officer exclaimed.

"Let's move!" Blubs answered. They ran off laughing. These police officers weren't doing their job, they're goofing off! Well, someone had to figure out who killed Wax Stan. And now, that someone is going to be him. He looked up with determination.

"That's it! Mabel, you and me are going to find the jerk who did this, and get back that head. Then we'll see who's adorable" he grumbled. Some dust got in his nose and he sneezed.

"Aww, you sneeze like a kitten!" Mabel exclaimed. Dipper flinched at basically being called cute by even his own sister.

"Let's just go to bed." Dipper muttered and started walking up the stairs. He entered his room to see Danny, on the floor, shaking. Why is Danny shaking? He ran over to Danny and sat down.

"Dipper?" Mabel asked. Danny's eyes were closed. Dipper guessed Danny's having a nightmare. He had tears streaming down his face. Dipper started shaking Danny.

"Danny, come one, it's just a dream, wake up, Dan-" he was cut off when Danny screamed and opened his eyes. They were that same green they were on the golf cart.

"Ohmygoshthey'realldeadIkilledthemit'sallmyfaultwhywasn'tItheresoonerohmygoshI'mdyinghelpIcan'tbreath" Dipper quickly recognized this as a panic attack. Danny was sobbing, gasping for air.

"Danny. Danny I need you to look at me" Dipper told him. Danny stopped talking now, just breathing like there's no tomorrow.

"Danny. Do you know where you are?" Dipper asked him. Danny opened his mouth, but he didn't seem to be able to speak.

"It's okay if you can't speak right now. You're having a panic attack. It's okay, you're not dying, and it'll go away. I need you to breath with me. Breath in, hold it, then exhale. Can you do that?" Dipper breathed with Danny. It took a while, but eventually Danny's breathing got back to normal and his eyes reverted to their normal blue.

"Okay, are you good now?" Dipper asked and Danny nodded. "Can you speak?"

"Yes" Danny responded. Dipper hugged Danny. Mabel joined from the other side.

"What was that about?" Dipper asked.

"Nightmare" Danny responded. Sensing that he didn't want to talk about it, Dipper didn't say anything else.

"Woah, what's with the hug fest?" they heard Stan say. They all looked up to see Stan standing at the doorway.

"Danny had a panic attack" Mabel said.

"Oh. You okay?" Stan asked. Danny nodded.

"Speaking of, how did you know how to calm me down?" Danny asked, voice hoarse.

"I mean, I've had my fair share of panic attacks" Dipper responded and broke the hug.

"Okay, well, if you kids are all okay, then I'm going to go back downstairs…." Stan said awkwardly and left.

"Yeah, I'm really tired. Can we go to sleep now?" Danny asked.

"Sure" Dipper said and moved to get into his bed.

"Um...Dipper, Mabel?" Danny asked.

"Yeah?" Mabel asked. Danny rubbed the back of his neck.

"Would you guys...um..mind….sleeping on the floor with me tonight?" he asked and smiled. Dipper smiled.

"Of course! It'll be like a sleepover, but in the same room!" Mabel exclaimed and grabbed her pillow and blanket. Dipper did the same. They put them down on the floor and laid down with Dipper on the right, Mabel on the left, and Danny in the middle. They all fell asleep within five minutes.

/

The next day, they had put up fake crime scene tape all around the living room. They were also making a poster with all the suspects on it. Mabel was going around, taking photos of Wax Stan while Danny set up the board.

"Wax Stan has lost his head and it's up to us to find it" Dipper declared.

"Wait, just a recap. So last night, in the time it took Stan to go to the bathroom, someone broke into the Shack, cut off the head of a _wax figure_ and left" Danny said, putting his hands out in front of him. "Wow. And they said _I_ had bladder issues." Danny said. Dipper ignored him.

"There were a lot of unhappy customers at the unveiling" Dipper said and looked at the now finished board of suspects. " The murderer could have been anyone…" Danny rose his hand.

"Actually, I was upstairs sleeping" he commented. Mabel narrowed her eyes.

"So quick to deny huh? How do we know YOU weren't the murderer? Do you have anyone who could testify to the fact that you were up there at the time of the murder?" Mabel asked.

"Um, Dipper? He checked on me, like, twenty minutes before the murder. Don't you guys think you would have noticed if I came down?" Danny asked.

"Well maybe you can TELEPORT!" Mabel yelled and tackled Danny. "Teleport away Danny! You can't hide your secret from me!" Dipper noticed how Danny tensed for a second when she said that. Add that onto the "Danny Clues" list. He has a lot of lists.

"Guys! Come on, be serious!" Mabel got off Danny. "In this town, anything is possible. Ghosts, zombies, it could be months before we find a clue" Dipper said. Mabel pointed to footprints next to Wax Stan's head.

"How do we keep missing these things?" Danny asked.

"That's weird. They've got a hole in them"

"And they're leading to….." Dipper trailed off. Dipper and Mabel gasped, then looked at each other. Danny just gaped.

"And Tucker called _me_ clueless…" Dipper decided to ask about this "Tucker" later, when they weren't investigating a murder.

/They were talking to Soos about what they had found. Soos, as always, gave invaluable advice.

"In my opinion, this is an axe," he said simply.

"Wait a minute. The lumberjack!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Of course!" they all yelled. Dipper remembered when Manly Dan had punched the pole.

"He was _furious_ when he didn't get that free pizza" Dipper explained.

"Furious enough, for _murder_!" Mabel said and made a fist.

"Oh you mean Manly Dan" Soos said. Dipper didn't miss how Danny flinched and squeezed his eyes shut when Soos said that. "Yeah, he hangs out at this crazy intense biker joint downtown"

"Then _that's_ where we're going" Mabel said seriously.

"Dude, this is awesome. You three are like the Mystery Trio!" Soos exclaimed.

"Don't call us that" Dipper said. As they left, they passed Stan, pulling something out of the car.

"Hey, give me a hand with this coffin, will ya? I'm doing a memorial service for Wax Stan. Something small, but classy," Stan pulled a coffin out of the car. They all turned around.

"Sorry Grunkle Stan, but we have a big break in the case!" Dipper explained.

"Break in the case!" Mabel copied him and waved her arms around.

"You sound like a parrot," Danny commented.

"No, YOU sound like a parrot!" Mabel countered.

"We're heading to the town right now to investigate the murder." Dipper continued. Mabel pulled out the axe.

"We have and axe!" she exclaimed. Danny shook his head frantically in the background. "REE REE REE!" she screamed and moved the axe back and forth.

"Hm, that seems like the kind of thing that responsible parents wouldn't want you to do…" Dipper saw Danny facepalm. "Good thing I'm an uncle! Avenge me kids! AVENGE ME!" he screamed and they all continued walking.

"I honestly thought Stan wasn't going to let us go" Danny commented.

/

As they were walking to the restaurant, Dipper asked Danny.

"So, you got some beef with Manly Dan or something?" Danny flinched _again._ Dipper is adding this to his Danny Clues.

"What? No. Why do you ask?" Dipper tested it once again. Dipper wondered if Danny would flinch if Dipper took out the manly part of Manly Dan.

"Well you always flinch when someone says Dan" Danny flinched again and had to close his eyes again. Definitely on his Danny clues list.

"Okay Dipper, you can stop saying that name now" Danny said impatiently.

"Stop saying what name?" Mabel asked. "Dan? Dan, Dan, Dan , Dan, Dan…" she stopped as Danny actually stopped walking. "Woah. Sorry Danny. Didn't realize it was that sensitive to you," Mabel apologized. Danny sighed.

"It's okay, Mabel." Dipper decided to change the subject.

"Hey look, we're here!" He exclaimed and threw his arms out towards the restaurant. Dipper looked at Danny. "Got the fake IDs?" he asked.

"Okay let's go," Dipper told them. They all walked up calmly.

"We're here to interrogate Manly Dan the lumberjack for the murder of Wax Stan" she said, acting like a police officer. They all held out their fake IDs. Mabel moved hers around. "Dedledle-e"

"Works for me," the guard said and opened the door. When they walked inside, they heard music, saw men fighting, and heard glass breaking. Dipper made a motion for Mabel and Danny to follow, and Mabel stepped over someone on the floor.

"He's resting," she said.

"Alright, let's just try to blend in, okay?" Dipper asked, even though he knew it would be too much for his sister.

"I don't know how much we _can_ blend in, Dipper. We're teenagers in a bar." Danny said, while Mabel was optimistic.

'You got it, Dipping Sauce." She climbed onto a chair and started talking to a random man. "Hey there, fellow restaurant patron!" she patted his arm. "Bap!"

"Hey guys! I found him!" Danny said and called them over to where Manly Dan was playing an arm wrestling game. Dipper walked up to him.

"Manly Dan, just the guy I wanted to see. Where were you last night?" Dipper asked him.

"Punchin the clock," he answered.

"You were at work?" Dipper asked, slightly confused.

"No, I was punchin' that clock!" he pointed to a broken clock that read 10:00.

"Ten o'clock, the time of the murder. So, I guess you've never seen this before?" Dipper asked and pulled out the axe.

"Listen little girl!" Manly Dan said. Danny snickered behind him. He glared at him before turning back around.

"Hey, actually, I'm a-" he was cut off by Manly Dan.

"I wouldn't pick my teeth with that axe. It's left handed! I only use my right hand, the MANLY HAND!" he yelled and gripped the hand off the game. Some tiny guy popped up.

"Get im'! Get im'" he giggled.

"Left handed…" Dipper muttered. He looked over to Mabel, who was using a cookie catcher with the guy she was talking to earlier.

"3,4,5,6," they said at the same time. Mabel opened up the flap and gaped.

"Your wife is gonna be beautiful." The man pumped his fist.

"Yes!" Dipper and Danny walked over to her.

"Mabel, big break in the case!" he said excitedly. The three of them left. Dipper heard the guy she was playing with call out to them.

"But will she love me?" he asked.

"Yes! She will love you!" Danny answered for Mabel.

"It's a left handed axe," Dipper said and showed Danny and Mabel the list of subjects."These are all out suspects. Manly Dan is right handed, that means all we have to do is find our left handed suspect and we've got our killer."

"Okay, knowing us, there's no way it's that easy" Danny said.

"Come on Danny, be optimistic for once! We are on fire today! Pa-zow, Pa-zow, Pa-zow!" Dipper fistbumped both Danny and Mabel at the same time. Talk about hand-eye coordination!

/

After spending most of the day doing strange things like throwing balls at people or pretending to be a pizza guy, they only had one suspect left. Dipper gasped.

"Mabel, Danny, there's only one person left on this list," he told them. Then, it was Mabel's turn to gasp.

"Of course! It all adds up!" she exclaimed.

"It does?" Danny asked.

/

They approached the Gravity Falls Gossiper. They all get out of the car.

"You kids better be right about this, or you'll never hear the end of it," Sheriff Blubs said.

"The evidence is irrefutable," Dipper said confidently.

"It's _so_ irrefutable," Mabel parroted him again.

"I gonna get to use my matchstick!" the police officer, who Dipper had learned was named Deputy Durland, said.

"You ready? You ready little fella?" Blubs asked.

"Woo, woo!" they made weird noises and started poking each other with their batons. Dipper felt himself get angry again at the two irresponsible police officers. He pushed it down. He would show them soon enough.

"On 3! 1,2…" Dipper said and Durland smashed the door open.

"YAAH!"

"Nobody move! This is a raid!" Blubs yelled and Toby fell out of his seat.

"Ahhhh! What is this, some kind of raid?" he asked. Durland smashed a lamp.

"Derp!" he reminded Dipper of Mabel.

"Toby Determined, you're under arrest for murder of the wax body of Grunkle Stan" he told him.

"You have the right to remain impressed with our awesome detective work" Mable said smugly.

"Is no one going to tell him his rights?" Danny asked. Toby stood up.

"Goobbling goose feathers! I don't understand!" Toby cried.

"Then allow me to explain. You were hoping that Grunkle Stan's new attraction would be the story that saved your failing newspaper. But when the show was a flop, you decided to go out and make your own headline," Dipper said.

"I feel like a Scooby Doo movie," Danny commented. Dipper continued as Mabel held up a newspaper.

"But you were sloppy, and all clues pointed to a shabby shoed reporter who was caught left handed." Mabel crumpled up the newspaper.

"Toby Determined, you're yesterday's news," she said.

"Hey, I wanted to say that!" Danny exclaimed.

"Boy, your little knees must be sore...from jumping to conclusions!" Toby exclaimed and did a little dance. "Chachacha! I had nothing to do with that murder."

"I knew it!" Dipper exclaimed. "Wait, what did you say? Nothing? You say nothing?" Dipper aid and heard the other two ask similar questions.

"Then where were you the night of the break in?" Blubs asked. Toby blushed.

"Eh…." Toby said and entered a tape into his TV. In the tape, he opens his closet and takes out a cardboard cutout of Shandra Jimenez.

"Finally, we can be alone, cardboard cutout of Shandraw Jimenez." They all made disgusted noises. Suddenly, Dipper's world went black. He freaked out until he realized it was just Danny's hand.

"Don't look. OW! I guess I should have seen that coming," Danny said and removed his hand from Dipper's face. Knowing Mabel, she probably bit his hand or something.

"Timestamp confirms. Toby, you're off the hook. You freak of nature," Blubs said.

"Hooray!" Dipper was very confused.

"But, but it has to be him! Check the axe for fingerprints!" Dipper demanded.

"No prints at all," Blubs told him.

"No prints?" Dipper asked.

"Hey, I got a headline for you. Kids waste everyone's time!" Durland laughed and Blubs joined him. They all looked at each other, embarrassed.

"Boy, I'd be pretty embarrassed if I was you three," Toby told them.

"Toby, look behind you," Danny deadpanned. He turned around.

"Right."

/

It was the funeral for Wax Stan. Stan had set up isles in the wax room and placed the wax figures in them. In the back of the room, there were some curtains, a picture of Stan and Wax Stan together, a podium, and a coffin with Wax Stan in it. Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Danny were sitting in the front row, while the wax statues were everywhere else. Stan walked up to the podium and started the service.

"Kids, Soos, lifeless wax figures, thank you for coming." Soos blew his nose while crying. "Some people might say it's wrong for a man to love a wax replica of himself." Dipper rolled his eyes, but Soos took it seriously. He jumped up and pointed.

"They're wrong!"

"Easy, Soos. Wax Stan, I hope you're picking pockets in wax heaven." Stan wiped his eyes. 'I'm sorry, I got glitter in my eye!" he ran out of the room. Soos stood up and went after him.

"Ohhhhh Duuuuude…." Dipper sighed.

"Those cops were right about me.." he said. He's weak, physically. He knew. Mabel knew it. All the bullies at school knew it. He thought that his intelligence could make up for the physical gap, but apparently not.

"Dipper, we've come so far, we can't give up now!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Yeah Dipper! Those cops were stupid anyway. You did way more than they ever did!" Danny said. Dipper stood up and walked towards the coffin.

"But I considered everything. The weapon, the motive, the clues." Dipper looked at Wax Stan and noticed something. "Wax Stan has a hole in his shoe…" Dipper said.

"All the wax guys have that. It's where the pole thingy attaches to their stand dealy" Mabel said.

"Wait a minute. What has a hole in it's shoe and no fingerprints?" Dipper asked. Danny gasped.

"No way. You're not saying that….the murderers are-"

"Standing right behind you?" they heard a voice say. They all turned around to see Wax Holmes standing behind them. All the wax figures start to move. Dipper gasped.

"Wax Sherlock Holmes! Wax Shakespeare! Wax Coolio?" Dipper asked.

"What's Up Holmes?" Wax Coolio asked. A wax figure took the axe from Mabel.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" Mabel said and backed behind Dipper.

"Ugh, I know where this is going…" Danny said.

"Congradulations, my three amuetur slueths, you have unburied the truth, and now we're going to bury you." he paused for dramatic effect. "Bravo Dipper Pines. You've discovered our little secret." Wax Holmes said and took out Wax Stan's head. "Applaud everyone, applaud sarcastically" he ordered and everyone started clapping. "Uh, no that sound too sincere. Slow clap." They started clapping slowly. "There we go, nice and condescending."

"But...how is this possible? You're made of wax!" Dipper asked.

"Dipper, we fought _gnomes_." Danny told him.

"Wait. Are you…. _magic_?" Mabel asked. Wax Holmes laughed.

"Are we magick? She wants to know if we're magic!" Wax Holmes stopped laughing. " We're CURSED!" The wax figures echoed him.

"Cursed to come to life whenever the moon is waxing." Danny chuckled. "Your uncle bought us many years ago at a garage sale," Wax Holmes explained.

"A haunted garage sale, son!" Wax Coolio interrupted.

"And so, the Mystery Shack Wax Collection was born. By day, we were the playthings of man."

"But when your uncle went to sleep, we would rule the night," Wax Coolio finished.

"It was a charmed life for us cursed beings, that is, until your uncle closed up shop," Wax Holmes said with bitterness. "We've been waiting ten years to get our revenge on Stan for locking us away, but we got the wrong guy."

"So you're trying to murder Grunkle Stan for real?" Dipper asked. He was not expecting this.

"You were right all along! Wax people _are_ creepy!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Guess you just a natural supernatural magnet, Dipper," Danny told him.

"Enough! Now that you know our secret, you must die!" Wax Holmes told them. He heard Danny growl next to them. He stepped in front of them.

"Over my dead body!" he yelled and punched Wax Holmes. It did nothing though, and Danny looked around.

"Over there! Heat melts wax! Get the candles!" Dipper saw that once again, Danny's eyes were green. Dipper turned around and grabbed one of the two candles on the table.

"What about you?" he asked Danny.

"I'll be fine! Just attack the wax people!" Dipper saw Wax Genghis Khan coming towards him in the corner of his eyes and he turned around and decapitated him. Wax Larry King was next to him now.

"Interview _this_ , Larry King!" he said and decapitated him.

"My neck! My beautiful neck!" Wax Groucho Marx tried to touch his candle, but his hand melted.

"Joke's on you, Groucho!" he yelled and cut him in half.

"I've heard about a cutting remark, but this is ridiculous! Hey, why is there nothing in my hand?"

"Dipper, watch out!" Mabel yelled. He turned around to see Wax Richard Nixon. He cut his leg, and Wax Sherlock Holmes approached him. He put Wax Stan's head on the rhino next to him and picked up a sword. Dipper felt fear creep up his stomach and into his throat.

"Alright. Let's get this taken care of," Wax Holmes said. He swung the sword at Dipper and smacked the candle out of his hand, breaking it. He swung the sword above his head, then pointed it towards Dipper.

"Catch!" Danny screamed and threw a hot poker at Dipper. Dipper luckily caught it by the right side and blocked Wax Holmes' sword with the poker. He backs up and parries with Wax Holmes until he is pushed against the attic wall.

"Once your family is out of the way, we'll rule the night once more!" Wax Holmes declared. Dipper looked at the window, and right when he was about to get hit by the sword, he ducked under Wax Holmes' legs and ran out the window. He was able to get onto the roof without falling to his death. He climbed onto where the Mystery Shack sign is, and ran as Wax Holmes follows and swung his sword. Dipper almost falls off. Wax Holmes cut of the S in Shack and it fell onto the ground below. Dipper is really glad no one was standing there.

"You really think you can outwit me, boy? I Sherlock bledding Holmes! Have you seen my magnifying glass? It's enormous!" Dipper dropped his poker, which probably wasn't a good idea, and climbed off the sign. He hides behind the chimney and looks behind him. No Wax Holmes. He turned around to see Wax Holmes right next to him. Wax Holmes kicked him in the gut and he fell backwards. He saw the rising sun and got an idea.

"Any last words?" Wax Holmes asked. He swallowed his fear and put all his energy into not stuttering.

"Um….you got any sunscreen?" he asked.

"Got any-what?" Wax Holmes turned around to see the rising sun. "No." He begins to melt. Dipper smirked.

"You know, letting me outside? Probably not your sharpest decision," Dipper said and walked towards the melting wax figure.

"Outsmarted by a child in short pants! No! Fiddlesticks! Humbugs! Tiiter, total kerfuffle. Butter hallabaloo" he continues his weird curse words. Dipper wonders what he thinks that's going to accomplish.

"Case closed!" Dipper wiped his hands together, causing dust to get in his nose, _again_. He sneezed. Curse his kitten sneeze.

"Ha ha ha! You sneeze like a kitten! Those policemen were right, you're adorable! Adorable!" Wax Holmes yelled as he fell onto the ground.

"E-ew"

"Whoo! Great performance! Got any sunscreen? You kicked his butt!" he heard a voice. He turned around to see Danny beaming at him. He smiled back and blushed at the praise.

"T-thanks.." Danny chuckled.

"Okay, let's go find Mabel."

/

"Dipper! You're okay!" Mabel exclaimed and hugged him. Dipper pulled up a chair and stood on it. He took Wax Stan's head off the wall.

"I couldn't have done it without my sidekicks," Dipper said proudly.

"No offence Dipper, but you're the sidekick" Mabel told him. Dipper immediately became worried.

"What? Say who? Have people been-" Danny cut him off with a snicker.

"Actually, you're both _my_ sidekicks" he told them.

"And why is that?" Mabel asked.

"Well because I'm the one with-um….great looks!" Danny seemed like he was going to say something else. Mabel giggled.

"Well, I can't argue there!" she exclaimed and Danny groaned.

"I thought we were past this!" Danny whined. That's when Stan walked in.

"Hot Belgian waffles! What happened to my parlor?" he asked.

"Your wax figures turned out to be evil, so we fought them to the death!" Mabel explained.

"I decapitated Larry King" Dipper told Stan. He swore he saw a look of concern of Stan's face, but then it was back to disbelief.

"Ha ha! You kids and your imaginations!" he laughed.

"On the bright side though, look what we found," Dipper showed Stan Wax Stan's head.

"My head!" Wow, that would sound weird out of context."Ha ha! I missed this guy! You done good kids! Alright, line up for some affectionate noogie-ing," Stan said and pulled them into a noogie.

"Times when I'm really glad I'm not actually related to you" Danny said.

"Nope! You can't escape either!" Stan said grabbed Danny. "You're a Pines now!" Dipper saw Danny smile. "And, now it's time for you to get back to work! Come on, the last two hours of the day are very important!" Danny groaned but left to go to the gift shop. Bubls and Durland drove up to the window.

"Solved the case yet, boy? I'm so confident you're gonna say no, that I'm gonna take a long, slow sip of my coffee," Blubs asked.

"Actually, the answer is yes," Dipper said. Blubs spit out his coffee in Durland's face. Durland did the same. This went on until they both drove away.

"It burns, it burns!"

"My eyes!" They all laughed.

"They got scalded!" Stan stated the obvious. They heard a crash. Dipper turned to Mabel.

"So, did you get rid of all the wax figures?" Dipper asked.

"I am 99% sure that I did," Mabel told him. Dipper shrugged.

"Good enough for me." He sat down on the couch. He thought about how he fought the wax figures, or how he outsmarted Sherlock Holmes. All his life, people have been telling him how he was weak, fragile, _adorable_. When he thinks of himself today, he feels like he's found a new side of himself. A side that can battle wax figures, drive golf carts away from gnome monsters, save his sister for once instead of the other way around. He thinks that maybe all those people had been wrong. Maybe he's not weak. Maybe there's a part of him that's strong. A part that's always had to fight because the mean words are always telling him to give in. But maybe, now that he's discovered this new side of himself, he can tell the mean words that he is Dipper Pines, and he is strong.

/

Word Count: 7372

AN: My attempt on an emotional ending. I don't really know where it came from, but meh. FYI, Danny didn't need a candle because ecto blasts. He was hoping no one would see him since they were too busy fighting. In his mind, it was better than actually transforming in front of Dipper and Mabel. That's actually the longest chapter I've ever written. This took me all day to write. I hope you enjoyed, can't wait to see you in the next chapter!


	4. Gideon and Suspicions

**So sorry about the late update. I tried to update it, but it wouldn't work. Luckily, I tried again today and it let me do it.**

Dipper, Mabel, and Soos were watching TV. Again. When they're not fighting monsters, it seems like all they do is watch TV. They were watching a new show Soos showed them, Tiger Fist.

"The tiger was badly injured in the explosion, but we repaired him with a fist," the announcer said. They all started cheering.

"That tiger's a hero!" Dipper yelled. For some reason, the tiger punched himself.

"Tiger Fist will return after these important messages. A hand came up from the TV screen with a bunch of doves. The doves flew away.

"Hey, look. It's that commercial I was telling you guys about," Soos said. There was a picture of some mountains.

"Are you completely miserable?" a voiceover asked.

"Yes!" cried an actor sitting on a bed.

"Then you need to meet…..Gideon" he told them.

"Gideon?" Dipper asked.

"What makes him so special?" Mabel followed.

"He's a psychic" the announcer on TV told them, like he was waiting for their question.

"Aroo?" Mabel asked.

"So don't waste your time with other so called 'man of mystery'" the man said while showing them Stan walking out of the port-a-potty outside. Okay, one, how did they get that? And two, why would Stan even use it? There are two perfectly good bathrooms _inside_ the house. A big FRAUD stamp went over the picture of Stan.

"Learn about tomorrow tonight at Gideon's Tent of Telepathy! Voidwhereprohibited,noCOD' ." Dipper internally snorted at that.

"Wow, I'm getting all curoisy inside!" Mabel exclaimed. Stan walked in.

"Well don't get too curiousy. Ever since that monster Gideon rolled into town, I've had nothing but trouble," Stan told them.

"Well is he really psychic?" Mabel asked as she stood up.

"I think we should go find out," Dipper said.

"Never!" Stan exclaimed while he took his tie off. "You're forbidden from patronizing the competition. No one that lives under my roof is allowed under that Gideon's roof!" Stan said.

"Do tents have roofs?" Dipper whispered to Mabel.

"I think we just found our loophole...literally!" she exclaimed and held up a string with a loop in it. "Mwop mwop!" Dipper looked at the TV again as the man started talking.

"So come down soon, folks. Gideon is expecting you." Dipper decided to ignore how creepy that sounded.

/

Dipper watched as a man held out a sack for people.

"Step right up there, folks! Put your money in Gideon's Psychic Sack!" he exclaimed. Dipper rolled his eyes and put a one dollar bill. He looked at Mabel who was looking around with wide eyes. He smiled and shook his head. His sister acts like a five year old sometimes. Actually, make that all the time. They sat down in some empty seats. Dipper looked around.

"Woah, this is like a bizzaro version of the Mystery Shack. They even have their own Soos," Dipper said and pointed to a man who had a name tag that said "Deuce". Soos narrowed his eyes at Deuce while eating his empanada.

"It's starting, it's starting!" Mabel said excitedly when the lights started to dim.

"Let's see what this _monster_ looks like," Dipper said sarcastically. A shadow showed up on stage and got bigger every time it took a step until the curtain opened to reveal…..a ten year old? He looked to be four foot two, not including his hair. God, his hair. The boy's hair alone seemed to be a foot tall, and white? Is that dye?.

"Hello America! My name is Li'l Gideon!" Gideon exclaimed and clapped. Five doves flew out of his hair. Dipper had to admit, that is a little impressive.

"That's Stan's mortal enemy?" Dipper asked, doubtful.

"But he's so wittle!" Mabel exclaimed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is such a gift to have you here tonight!...Such a gift. I have a vision. I predict that you will soon all say 'awww'" he said and striked what Dipper guesses is supposed to be a cute pose.

"Awwwww!" everyone exclaimed. Dipper rolled his eyes. Anyone could see through that!

"It came true…." Mabel said in awe (pun _not_ intended). Dipper internally facepalmed.

"What? I'm not impressed."

"You're impressed!" Mabel told him. Right. As if _she_ could dictate his feelings.

"Hit it Dad!" Gideon exclaimed and pointed to the same man who was holding the bag earlier. He started playing the piano.

" _Oh, I can see, what others can't see,_

 _It ain't some sideshow trick, it innate ability,_

 _Where others are blind, I am futurely inclined_

 _And you too could see, if you was wittle old me!_

Gideon sang.

"Come on, everybody! Rise up! I want y'all to keep it going!" he said. Dipper was debating staying sitting when he rose unwillingly. Everyone started clapping.

"Wha? How did he?" Dipper asked.

"Keep it going!" Gideon kept singing.

" _You wish your son would call you more,"_

He pointed to a woman with a cat in her lap.

"I'm leaving everything to my cats!"

" _I sense that you've been here before,"_

He pointed to Sheriff Blubs, who had all kinds of Gideon merchandise on.

"Oh, what gave it away?" he asked.

"Come _on_!" Dipper said, exasperated. Gideon looked at Mabel.

" _I'll read your mind if I'm able,_

He sang and winked. Dipper narrowed his eyes.

 _Something tells me you're named Mabel_

Dipper noticed Mabel was wearing her sweater with her name on it. Dipper groaned. Honestly, the only thing impressive about this guy is that he came come up with rhymes on the spot.

"How'd he do that?" Mabel asked. Dipper is about scream in frustration.

 _So welcome all ye..to the Tent of Telepathy,_

 _And thanks for visiting,_

 _Widdle ol me!_

A sign that said GIDEON came down and fire shot up on the edges of the song ended and Gideon started panting. Everyone clapped and whooped, except for Dipper of course. He just frowned.

"Oh..oh my goodness." Gideon said and drank some water. Then he turned to them. "Thank you! You people are the real miracles!" Gideon said and walked offstage.

"Woo! yeah!" Mabel screamed as they all stood up.

"Man, that kid's an even bigger fraud than Stan! No wonder our uncle's jealous," Dipper said.

"Oh, come on. His dance moves were adorable! And did you see his hair? It was like, whoosh!" she gestured backwards with her hands.

"You're too easily impressed," Dipper told her.

"Yeah, yeah!" she said and poked him. Oh it's on. They had a poke war all the way back home, laughing the whole time.

/

Dipper was thinking about how weird Gideon seemed last night when Mabel walked in.

"Check it out Dipper! I successfully bedazzled my face!" She exclaimed and Dipper looked up only to cringe. Mabel had sequins all over her face. Even on her eyelids. How did she even do that? "Blink!" Mabel exclaimed and, well, blinked, "Ow."

"Is that permanent?" he asked cautiously.

"I'm unappreciated in my time." The doorbell rang.

"Somebody answer that door!" Stan yelled. Mabel turned around.

"I'll get it!" she yelled and ran out of the room. Dipper sighed. Dipper decided it's time to do some rechearch. He opened up the journal and searched for his list. After seeing that weird conversation with Danny and who Dipper thinks is Vlad Masters (He's still confused about that),he decided to put his mental list onto paper. He looked at it.

 _List of Danny Facts_

 **1\. Danny's eyes glow green during moments of extreme emotion.**

 **2\. Danny did something to the golf cart that made him really tired. Enough to pass out.**

 **3\. Danny looks like that teen ghost we found in the woods. When prodded about it, he is very dismissive.**

 **4\. Danny knows the name of a ghost named Skulker.**

 **5\. Danny's last name is Fenton.**

 **6\. Danny knows someone named Plasmius.**

 **7\. Danny has bad history with Plasmius.**

 **8\. Danny called Vlad Masters Plasmius.**

 **9\. Danny can "Go Ghost".**

 **10\. Danny has recently lost people.**

 **11\. It is dangerous for Danny to go with Plasmius because of this.**

 **12\. (Just something nice) Danny likes it here.**

That's pretty much all Dipper knows at this point. He can't really get much from this, so he'll have to look in the journal.

"What's up?" Danny asked and looked over his shoulder.

"N-Nothing!" Dipper squeaked and closed the journal. Judging by the look on Danny face, he still saw some of it.

"W-What's that?" Danny asked. "I,um, saw my name," he explained. Oh no. Danny can't know that Dipper is on to him! Oh no, what should he say, what to say?

"DON"T LOOK! IT'S," he realized he was screaming. "It's, um, it's a list of possible welcome presents for you!" Dipper internally slapped himself, but Danny seemed to buy it. He visibly relaxed.

"Oh. You don't have to do that Dipper," Danny told him and smiled.

"Don't worry! Mabel and I came up with it together! You will get it in a week!" Dipper lied. Well, when Mabel gets home, Dipper will ask her to knit a sweater for him. He's sure she won't mind.

"Okay, I guess," he said and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Y-Yeah, well, I'm gonna go to the library now, so see you later!" He told him and jumped out of his seat. He ran out of the house before Danny could say anything. Smooth, Dipper told himself, smooth. That went well. He looked over the journal looking for any clues while walking to the library. He got so sucked into his book that he didn't even notice there was a person in front of him until he bumped into them.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I wasn't looking when I was going-" the girl cut him off.

"It's okay. I wasn't really paying attention either," she told him. That's when he actually looked at her. She had a yellow shirt and an orange skirt. Her hair was black, but she had an orange headband in it. She had two bracelets on each arm, one yellow, one orange. In her hand was a red machine thing. It was beeping.

"I'm Valerie," she told him and held out a hand.

"Dipper," he said and shook the hand. "What's that thing?" Dipper asked.

"Um, well, do you believe in ghosts?" Valerie asked. Dipper got very excited, very fast.

"Do I? I want to become a paranormal investigator when I grow up!" he told her. Valerie looked surprised.

"Wow, really? Most of the people in this town don't believe me. Anyway, I'm from Amity Park. We get a lot of ghosts there. Or well, we used to. About a month ago, there was a huge explosion at one of our local restaurants, the Nasty Burger. It killed six people. After that, the ghosts just stopped coming. I'm here after the ghost who caused the explosion. About a week ago, my trackers spotted him in this town. Did you see a ghost with white hair, green eyes, and in a black and white jumpsuit?" she asked.

"Yes! A week ago, we were going monster hunting and he was fighting another ghost named Skulker. He didn't seem to be evil though, he protected us," he told her. He didn't want an innocent person to be framed for something he didn't do.

"Yeah, he does that. Don't be fooled by his trickery, though. He just wants to gain your favor before he kills you all. It's exactly what he did in Amity. It his fault that Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Mr. Fenton, , and died. And I will find him, and destroy him, so that he can never hurt anyone ever again." Wait, Danny came from the same town as this girl? That means his hometown is Amity Park! He makes a mental note to add that to his list.

"Danny's parents died in an explosion?" Dipper asked.

"Danny's here? Where is he?" she asked frantically. Dipper was confused. Did this girl know Danny? How did Danny even get here anyway?

"Um, yeah. Danny Fenton, I mean. I can take you to him if you want." he told her.

"Yes, please!" Dipper looked up to see she was crying. Dipper's eyes widened. How much did this girl care for Danny? He began leading her back to the Mystery Shack. Well, there goes his rechearch time. When they got there, Danny wasn't on his shift, so Dipper assumed he must be upstairs. He led Valerie upstairs and knocked on the door to their room.

"Who is it? If it's Stan, go away," they heard Danny say.

"It's Dipper," he said.

"Oh, hi Dipper. Weren't you going to the library?" Danny asked. Dipper opened the door to see Danny lying on his bed. "Sorry, I used your bed. I didn't want to lay on the floor, you know?" Danny said.

"It's fine. And yeah, I was going to the library, but I bumped into someone you might want to talk to. Valerie walked in. She covered her mouth.

"Danny!" she yelled and hugged him. Dipper smiled. Danny hugged her back. Dipper decided now would be a good time to leave and let them catch up. He went downstairs and decided to look over the journal for clues again, since the only accessible computer is at the library. He had just opened the journal when some red claws appeared over his head.

"Hey Dipper. What's going oooooon?" he heard Mabel ask. He pushed what he now recognized as her hand away.

"Woah, where have you been? And what's with those fingernails you look like a wolverine," he told her. Dipper never got why girls like to put gooey stuff on their fingers. It's weird and Dipper imagines it would feel gross. Same for makeup.

"I know right!" Mabel exclaimed. She roared and pretended to scratch something. "I was hanging out with my new pal, Gideon. He is one dapper little man," she told him. Dipper was sceptical.

"Mabel, I don't trust anyone whose hair is bigger than their head," Dipper said

"Oh, leave him alone! You never get to do girly stuff with me. You and Soos get to do boy stuff all the time!" Mabel complained(whined).

"What do you mean?" Dipper asked. He tried to think of examples, but before he could really think, Soos walked in.

"Hey, dude, you ready to blow up these hot dogs one by one?" Soos asked. Dipper immediately forgot what he was thinking about.

"Am I!" he yelled and ran off with Soos.

"One at a time! One at a time!" Soos and him chanted while they blew up hot dogs. By the time they blew up all the hot dogs in the package, they were laughing so hard Dipper was crying. Soos was just making squirrel noises. Dipper stopped laughing and looked at Soos. Soos, oblivious to this, kept on making the weird noises. Dipper slowly backed out of the Shack, Soos still completely oblivious. Now that he thinks about it, he still needs to do some rechearch on Danny. Hopefully he doesn't run into any more of Danny's childhood friends. He opened up his list again. How does this all connect? There's no way that this is all coincidence. Besides, there's no way a human's eyes can glow toxic green! Dipper can practically hear his sister telling him to stop being so paranoid. But this time, Dipper is sure that he is onto something. He nods to himself. He's sure this time. And this time, he's going to do his homework. Not just some video clip that he happened to stumble upon. He can see the library coming up. When he walks in, he looks around for the computer, and saw it in a corner of the library. He walks up to it and sits down into a chair. He cracks his knuckles.

"Okay, let's do this." He types Fenton into the search bar. A lot of random things come up, but nothing about a family. He types Amity Park Fenton. That gets more results. He clicks on an article about a Fenton Ghost Portal. He skims over it, and reads about how the Fentons made a portal into the "Ghost Zone" which seems to be the place where ghosts reside. Dipper looks at the section in the journal about ghosts, but nothing like this comes up. He clicks back. He sees an article labeled "Disaster at the Nasty Burger: Six Citizens Killed, One Missing". This sounds like the accident Valerie was talking about. He reads over this one more carefully, and tells about how someone named Phantom was fighting another ghost before the explosion happened. They found the bodies of Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley, and all the Fenton family except for Danny. He is currently presumed dead because they can't find him.  
Who is this Phantom person? Dipper puts Amity Park Phantom into the search bar. A lot of article about him come up. Most of them were arguments on whether or not he was evil, but eventually he found one with a picture on it. When he saw it, Dipper's eyes widened. It was that teen ghost they saw in the woods! The one that looked suspiciously like Danny. Now that he got a closer look, Phantom's eyes looked the exact same color Danny's did when they turned green. Dipper narrowed his eyes and pressed the print button. Unfortunately, the library only had black and white printing, so that would have to do for now. Dipper printed it out and dashed out the door. Running home, he passed Valerie walking down the street.

"Oh hey! How'd it go?" Dipper asked.

"Um...I think it went well? Danny seemed distracted, but that's to be expected. He also begged me not to tell the town that he's alive, which I find strange. Yeah, he didn't really have many friends, but I'm sure everyone would be thrilled to know he's alive. Even Paulina," she said.

"Who's Paulina?"

"No one," Valerie told him. "Anyway, I'm going to keep looking for Phantom. If it turns out this is a dead end, I'll keep looking. I won't stop until that bastard is in the hands of the Guys in White," Valerie said.

"Who's the Guys in White?" Dipper asked. He feels like he heard that name before.

"They're a government organization. They contain and destroy ghosts," Valerie said. Ah, right, he had been researching what supernatural investigation government forces there were when he read about them.

"Wait, destroy?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah. I mean, all ghosts are evil and we need to rid the world of those vermin," Valerie said casually.

"What? You can't just destroy their existence! They deserve to get a chance, even if they are ghosts!" Dipper exclaimed.

"Don't let them fool you, Dipper. Any kindness they might show is just to get on your side," Valerie said. Dipper couldn't believe it. There has to be benevolent ghosts somewhere. No species is inherently bad! Dipper ran off again. He should ask Danny about this. His parents were ghost hunters, after all. But Valerie _is_ a ghost hunter! Anything she says should be more credible. Either way, Dipper refuses to believe all ghosts are bad. If all ghosts are bad, what's to say humans aren't too? Besides, he firmly believes that everyone deserves one chance. Of course, if you betray that chance, you can be sure as heck Dipper will never trust you again. He runs up to the Mystery Shack and pushes open the door. Stan is sitting at the counter, counting money. He looks up, confused.

"Woah, kid. Where's the fire?" he asks.

"No time, Grunkle Stan! I have to ask Danny something important!" Dipper yelled and ran passed him. He rushed up the stairs and thrust open the door.

"AH!" Danny screamed and Dipper heard a crash. Dipper squeezed his eyes shut in a panic. Dipper slowly opened his eyes to see Danny in an awkward position on the floor. He looked up, seeming very panicked.

"Wow, did my coming in startle you so much you fell of the floor?" Dipper asked with raised eyebrow. Danny nodded frantically.

Yeah! That's exactly what happened! Nothing else! I mean, it's not like I can fly or anything!" he exclaimed and rubbed the back of his neck. Dipper's eyebrow flew into the ceiling, but he let it slide. He then remembered why he had even rushed back the the Mystery Shack in the first place.

"Danny! Are all ghosts bad?" Dipper asked.

"No!" Danny exclaimed and Dipper sighed in relief."Wait a minute. How did you know I would know about ghosts?" Danny asked suspiciously.

"I may or may not have researched your family name?" Dipper asked as a half question, half statement. "I was just curious!"

"Dipper, it's fine. Honestly, if I were you, I'd be curious too," Danny said. "Anyway, where did you hear that all ghosts are evil?" Danny asked.

"Valerie," Dipper explained. Dipper heard Danny swear under his breath.

"Ugh, of course. I wish she had never come here," Danny said. Dipper was confused by this. Wasn't Valerie his close friend?

"Isn't she your friend?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah, but she's always caused me problems that I can't really explain. But yeah, not all ghosts are evil. Some are neutral, and some are benevolent! Just the ones that don't want to rule the world stay in the Ghost Zone so they won't be bothered," Danny explained.

"That's relieving. If a species can be inherently bad, then what's to say ours isn't?" Dipper asked rhetorically.

"Wow, I've never thought about that. It just always bothered me because-" Danny cut himself off. "Um, because I once saw this ghost and it saved me, so that means they can't be evil!" Danny said.

"Phantom?"

"How did you know?"  
"It came up in your family's research."

'Oh, okay. It was Phantom that saved me. Everyone says he's evil, especially since the explosion. But I know that he isn't."

"It's so weird how much you look like him…" Dipper trailed off. Danny rubbed the back of his neck again.

"Haha, yeah…." Dipper remembered his picture. He took it out of his pocket and held it up so that he could see Danny and the picture side by side. Dipper's eyes widened. They looked exactly the same! If you took the color out of both f them, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!  
"Dipper? What's wrong?" Danny asked. Dipper ran out of the room and down the stairs. He ran past the gift shop and right outside. He passed Mabel, who was about to walk in, humming some eighties song.

"Mabel, emergency meeting. Twins only," Dipper said and grabbed her hand. They both ran upstairs and walked into their room. Danny wasn't there. That's strange. Dipper didn't see Danny pass them. They both grabbed their blankets and walked downstairs. They walked into the living room and opened a drawer. They each grabbed a piece of paper, a pen, and a piece of tape. Dipper walked towards the main entrance while Mabel walked the other way. He wrote "TWINS ONLY MEETING. KEEP OUT." on the paper and taped it to the outside of the blanket. Dipper then turned on the TV and grabbed two controllers. He might as well try to calm himself down. He handed one to Mabel and they both sat down on Stan's chair.

"So, Bro bro, what's this meeting all about?" Mabel asked him. He pulled out his picture of Phantom.

"Mabel, who is this a picture of?" Dipper asked.

"Danny. Wait. Bro, I get you like him, but that's kinda creepy," Mabel said and Dipper groaned.

"Mabel! One, I don't like him. Two, this isn't Danny. It's that ghost that we saw on the monster hunt. His name's Phantom," Dipper said.

"How do you know his name?" Mabel asked.

"I went to the library while you were with Gideon. How did that go, anyway?" Dipper asked. Mabel groaned and put her head in her arms.

"I don't know. Let's just talk about it later,"she said. Dipper took that as a bad sign. If it went well in any way, Mabel would be rambling on about all the things they did together. But, right now he had more important things to discuss.

"Okay…..Um so anyway, it's weird that if you took the color out of both of them, they look exactly alike, right?" Dipper asked. Mabel nodded. "And get this. When there was color in the picture, Phantom's eyes are the exact same color as Danny's when they turn green. Phantom's full name is even _Danny_ Phantom!" Dipper exclaimed, throwing his hands up.

"Wait, back up. When did Danny's eyes turn green? They were his normal color of dreamy blue when I last saw him," Mabel said and Dipper rolled his eyes at his sister's use of the word dreamy. Although he did have beautiful eyes…...Woah! Where was he going with that? It doesn't matter anyway. It's perfectly normal to say that your friend has pretty eyes!

Hello? Earth to Dippin Dots?" Mabel said and waved her hands in front of his face. Dipper blushed and coughed.

"Sorry. Anyway, his eyes turned green that one time with the golf cart, as well as the fight with the wax people. By the way, did you see how Danny managed without a candle?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah, it was so cool! He didn't even need one! He was just like, Pow!" Mabel punched the air in front of them. "And his hand went straight through them! Dipper furrowed his eyebrows. To do that, Danny would have needed to create heat in his own hand. How?

"Dipper, his eyes being green might just be a trick of the light," Mabel told him.

"Mabel, twice? The exact same color? Which also happens to be the color of Phantom's eyes? That's just too many coincidences for me," Dipper said.

"Woah, do you think he has a dead twin?" Mabel asked.

"Mabel, no. Don't even ask him that," Dipper deadpanned to her.

"Awwww. It's possible."

"But highly improbable."

"Fiiiiine. You're so mean, Dipper," Mabel whined.

"But, seriously, Danny somehow connected to Phantom. And we're going to find out," Dipper said.

"Mystery Twins!" Mabel yelled and pumped her fist.

"We're not the Mystery Twins!" Mabel laughed. "Anyway, what happened with Gideon?" Dipper asked. He picked up his controlled again and started playing while Mabel explained the whole situation to him.

"It's not a date-date. It's just, you know, I didn't want to hurt his feelings, and so I figured I'd throw him a bone," Mabel told him. Dipper is sure this is going to end badly.

"Mabel, guys don't work that way. He's gonna fall in love with you," Dipper told her. It felt weird that he was the one giving her love advice instead of the other way around.

"Yeah, right. I'm not _that_ loveable," she said and killed Dipper in the game they were playing. "Kaboom! Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Okay, we agree on something here," he said, annoyed. The doorbell rang and Mabel went pushed past the "curtain" and walked to the door. Dipper watched as half a horse walked in.

"Ahh!" Mabel screamed and fell to the ground. He looked up at the horse to see Gideon on it.

"A night of enchantment awaits, m'lady!" He exclaimed with a smirk on his face. Dipper resisted the urge to go punch him in the face as Gideon left with his sister.

Dipper took down the blankets and put them back where they belong before going to the gift shop, in search of company. He found Wendy and Soos. He would rather hang out with Mabel, but since that's not an option, this is the best he's gonna get. Besides, Wendy is pretty cool. He sits on a barrel next to the counter and lays his head back. Maybe cooler than Danny. See, he tells himself, he can't have a crush on Danny, because he likes Wendy more! Wait, does that mean he likes Wendy? No, no way. He's not having a crush on anyone. It was Mabel's idea to have an epic summer romance, not his. No crushes. They're stupid, anyway. If you're like him, the only thing that ever happens is you get your heart broken. And by like him, he means physically impossible to have a crush on. No one in their right mind should ever like him. It's never happened, and it never will. He's fine being single for the rest of his life. Completely fine.

"Hey, hey! What the jackal is Mabel doing in the paper next to that greasy pickpocket Gideon?" Stan asked as he walked in.

"Oh yeah, it's like a big deal. Everybody's talking about Gideon and Mabel's big date tonight," Wendy said from behind him.

"WHAT?" Stan screamed. "That little shyster is dating my great niece?" Stan screamed.

"I wonder what the new name will be for the power couple. Mabideon? Gideable?" Soos gasped. "Magidbeleon!" he exclaimed and Dipper laughed. Stan threw his newspaper down and left the room, fuming.

"I didn't know!" Dipper yelled after him. "I didn't hear about it and plus, I told her not to," Dipper said and mentally facepalmed. That made no sense. If he didn't know, how was he supposed to try and stop her? Stan entered the room again, wearing his suit. How did he get changed so fast?

"Yeah, well it ends tonight. I'm going right down to that little skunk's house. This is gonna stop right now!" he yelled and slammed the door.

"Dude, wouldn't it be funny if that was a closet, and he had to come back out again and go out the real door?" Soos asked and opened the door. "Nope. Real door," he said disappointed. Dipper decided to go upstairs and catch up on some sleep. He hates being an insomniac sometimes.

/

A few hours later, Dipper was reading the journal, looking for more clues about Danny, when Mabel walked in. Dipper perked up. While he did enjoy reading, he was getting a little bored.

"Hey. How'd it go?" he asked her.

"I don't know…." she said and walked over to a fish tank they had. She put a lobster in it. "I have a lobster now." Dipper really hoped she didn't do what he thinks she did.

"Well, at least it's over and you never have to go out with him again…..Mabel? It's over, right? Mabel?" he asked.

"BLARG!" she screamed and flailed her arms. "He asked me out again and I didn't know how to say no!" she exclaimed.

"Like, this: no," Dipper said and pointed at his face.

'It's not that easy, Dipper! And I do like Gideon, as a friend slash little sister, so I don't want to hurt his feelings!" Mabel exclaimed. Little sister? Is Gideon really that feminine? "I just need to get things back to where they used to be. You know, friends."

/

Dipper was talking to Mabel again after another date. She was pacing in the living room, muttering to herself.

"I mean, he's so nice, but...I can't keep doing this. But I can't break his heart. I have no way out!" She screamed in frustration.

"What in the heck happened on that date?" Dipper asked.

"I don't know! I was in the friend zone, then before I knew what was happening, he pulled me into the romance zone. It was like quicksand! Chubby quicksand!" she exclaimed.

"Mabel, come on. It's not like you're going to have to marry Gideon," he told her, trying to make her feel better because honestly, he didn't have a solution for this problem. They might have to consult Wendy or Danny or something.

"Great news, Mabel. You have to marry Gideon!" Stan told her as he walked in. Way to go, Dipper. You jinxed it.

"WHAT?" Mabel screamed.

"It's all part of my long term deal with Buddy Gleeful. There's a lot of cash tied up in this thing. Plus I got this shirt," he said and gestured to his shirt which said "Team Gideon" on it. "Ugh, I am fat." Mabel screamed and ran out of the room.

"Bodies change, honey! Bodies change…." Stan called after her.

"Ugh, that's not it, Grunkle Stan! She doesn't actually like Gideon!" Dipper exclaimed.

"She'll get used to it," he said.

"I can't believe you!" Dipper yelled and ran after Mabel. When he got to the attic, he saw Mabel with her head and arms in her sweater. This happens when she gets put under too much stress. She can handle it pretty well until it becomes too much and she just breaks, trying to hide from the world by going into "Sweater Town". This is when whoever's with her has to get him to get her out.

"Oh no. Mabel…" he said and sat down next to her.

"Mabel's not here. She's in sweater town," she said.

"Are you gonna come _out_ of sweater town?" Dipper asked hopefully. Mabel whined and shook her head. Yeah, he didn't think so.

"Alright, enough is enough. If you can't break up with Gideon, I'll do it for you," he told her. She looked up at Dipper.

"You will?" she asked and he nodded. She started punching him repeatedly before hugging him.

"Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you!" she exclaimed and Dipper rolled his eyes.

"Alright.."

/

He walked into a fancy restaurant called The Club. He felt really weird coming into this place in his vest and T-shirt. He found the table Gideon was sitting at and walked up to it. He cleared his throat. Gideon set his menu down.

"Oh Dipper Pines, how are you? You look good, you look good," he said while nodding. Dipper is pretty sure he's mocking him.

"Thanks you.." he was going to say you too, but his nervousness got the best of him. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh...look, Gideon." he stuck his hands in his vest pockets. "We've got to talk." he pulled his hands out of his pockets and made fists. What is he doing with his hands? "Mabel isn't joining you tonight." he rubbed the back of his neck again before putting both of his hands on the table. "She uh, she doesn't want to see you anymore," he laughed nervously. "She's kinda weirded out by you, no offense." he made a sweeping motion with his hand. He looks up at Gideon, who's just smiling calmly. He thinks he saw an eye twitch.

"So what you're sayin' is...you've...come between us."

"Um...not really no. She never really wanted to date you," he said and rubbed the back of his neck again. "You're not gonna like, freak out or anything, are you?" he asked nervously. Gideon frowned for a minute before smiling again.

"Of course not. These things happen. Bygones,you know." Dipper sighed in relief.

"So. Okay. Cool." he said and did mini finger guns. What the heck is he doing? "Then again, sorry man, but uh, hey, thumbs up, huh?" Dipper said as he backed away. He turned around and walked out of the restaurant, smiling. He feels pretty good about that one. He didn't have a panic attack, and he helped his sister out. When he walked out the door, Mabel was there, ready with a thousand questions.

"How's it go? Was he mad? Did he try to read your mind with his psychic powers?" she asked him.

"Don't worry Mabel, he's just a kid. He doesn't have any powers," he said and put his hand on her shoulder.

/

They were playing outside the next day, just having finished charging Soos's pillowed stomach. They were about to do Danny's next when the phone rang.

"Your turn," they both said at almost the same time, Dipper finishing a second after mabel. "Aww man…" he said and got up. When he picked up the phone, he heard a voice he did not expect.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Toby Determined, Gravity Falls Gossiper," Dipper remembered what happened last week.

"Oh hey man. Sorry for accusing you of murder last week."

"Water under the bridge! Say, we want to interview you about whether or not you've seen anything unusual about this here town since you've arrived." this peaked Dipper's attention. This is the chance he's been waiting for!

"Oh, finally! I thought nobody would ever ask! I have notes and theories!" he listened as Toby gave him an address and pulled out a notepad to write it down.

"Uh huh, uh huh. 412 Gopher Road. Tonight? Got it," he said and hung up the phone. When he went back outside, Mabel had already barreled into Danny's stomach, and it seems to have gone badly. They were both on the ground, Mabel on top of Danny's stomach.

"What was that about, bro bro?" Mabel asked.

"You'll never guess. Toby Determined called me to talk about the strange stuff in this town! He said to meet him at 412 Gopher Road tonight!" he exclaimed.

"Woah, dude, that's an warehouse the Gleeful family uses," Soos told him.

"That sounds like the exact definition of a trap," Danny said.

"Come on, he's just a kid. He's got no reason to hurt me, besides, what could he do?" Dipper asked.

"Um, you did break up with him for me," Mabel said.

"And you never know, this is a weird town after all," Danny said.

"Okay, fine. I'll bring a bat or something with me," Dipper said.

/

Dipper walked up to the warehouse. He walked in the door but saw nobody there.

"Hello?" Dipper asked. Nobody answered. He turned around to leave, but the door slammed shut. He banged on the door and turned around when the lights turned on. A chair in front of him turned around, revealing Gideon petting a doll of himself. That's creepy. Well, Danny was right.

"Hello friend," Gideon said, still petting the doll.

"Ugh, Gideon," he said, secretly searching for a way out as he talked.

"Dipper Pines," he started messing with the arms of the doll in his lap. There were multiple windows, and he has a bat. Maybe he can smash his way out. "How long have you been living in this town?" Yeah, but then Gideon could sue Grunkle Stan for property destruction. "A week, two?" The door didn't seem to be locked. If he could distract Gideon long enough, he could leave. "You like it here? Enjoy the scenery?" he asked, suddenly sounding about ten times more hostile.

"What do you want from me, man?" Dipper asked, crossing his arms.

"Listen carefully boy, this town has secrets you couldn't even begin to comprehend!" Gideon exclaimed. Maybe he could talk his way out of this.

"Is this about Mabel? I told you, she's not into you!" Dipper exclaimed. Yeah, right. He has barely any social skills. How is supposed to _talk_ his way out of this?  
"LIAR!" Gideon screamed. "YOU turned her against me!" Maybe Dipper would fight his way out of this. He might be able to defeat him, Dipper is pretty sure Gideon is a ten year old, after all. "She was my peach dumpling'!" he screamed and started walking towards him, holding his amulet.  
"Uh, you okay man?" Dipper asked. Suddenly he found himself being levitated into the air. He gasped right before he was thrown into a pile of boxes. The air was knocked out of him and he hit his head. A few black spots filled his vision, but he blinked them away.

"Reading' minds isn't all I can do,"

"But-but you're a fake!" he gasped out.

"Oh tell me Dipper, is this fake?" All the merchandise around him was levitated. He needs to think of a way out of this. Gideon started throwing merchandise at him. He dodged them, thinking of a way to get out of this. Gideon made a large case fall and he rolled out of the way, hitting his head on a wall in the process. He started seeing black spots again, staying this time.

"Grunkle Stan….was right! Y-you are a monster!" He screamed, fighting to stay conscious.

"Your sister will be mine!" Gideon screamed and started laughing. He grabbed the baseball bat he dropped earlier and stood up, shakily. He ran towards Gideon, almost falling multiple times. He was about to hit Gideon when he used his tie to levitate him into the air.

"She's never gonna date you man!" Dipper screamed.

"That's a lie," Gideon said. "And I'm gonna make sure you never lie to me again, friend," he said and levitated lamb shears into the air. There were more black spots now. Huh. What was he doing again?

"Dipper!" he heard someone say then he felt really tingly. He giggled before finally falling unconscious.

"Dipper! Dipper! Dipper! Come on! I'm pretty sure you have a concussion, and the number one rule of concussions is DON'T SLEEP. WAKE UP!" he heard someone yell. He groaned and tried to move his arm, but found he couldn't. His eyes shot open, and when they did, his head started hurting like heck.

"Ow ow ow ow my head…." he looked up to see Phantom shaking him. He screamed.

"And who would you happen to be?" he heard another voice say.

"Gideon! We have to talk!" he heard yet another voice yell. That hurt. Wait. he knows that voice. It's...um…..it's a girl…..his cousin? No…..

"Ow…." he groaned.

"M-mabel. My marshmallow" he heard the voice from before. That's right, her name was Mabel. But what was she to him? And is she a marshmallow? Is he friends with a marshmallow? That'd be funny. He laughed.

"What's wrong?" he heard Phantom ask.

"It's just, I'm friends with a marshmellow!" he said, cracking up.

"Oh, god, Dipper. We really need to get you to a hospital," Phantom said. He then remembered who Phantom actually was and started crying.

"Why...why did you kill six..six people?" Dipper asked, sobbing. He closed his eyes again. It made his head hurt a little less. A little.

"What? I...I didn't. I swear I didn't kill them. Where did you hear that?" he asked.

"Valerie."

"Don't believe her. I didn't kill them. I didn't. I swear Dipper, I didn't," Dipper could move now. He opened his eyes and put his hand on Phantom's arm.

"I believe you,"

"Really? You're the first one…" Phantom said.

"No!" he heard the girl scream again. "Not really! You were like, attacking my brother! What the heck!" she screamed. Dipper opened his eyes again, despite the pain, and saw the girl throw a blue thing at Phantom, who caught it in one hand, still holding Dipper with his other arm.

"What're you gonna do now, Gideon?" Phantom asked. Suddenly, he felt himself flying and someone slapping him.

"Haha look, we're flying! Where!" he exclaimed.

"What's wrong with you, boy?" said the male voice from earlier. Suddenly, he wasn't flying anymore.

"Awww" he said and closed his eyes again.

"Listen, Gideon, it's over. I will never, ever, date you," he heard Mabel say. Who is she? Is she still a marshmallow? He heard a sound of something breaking.

"MY POWERS! Oh this isn't over. This isn't the last you'll see of wittle...ol'... me" the voice from when they were flying yelled

"He said wittle!" Dipper giggled he opened his eyes again.

"Dipper! Oh my gosh, what's wrong?" Mabel yelled.

"Loud….." he said and rolled over.

"I think he has a concussion" Phantom said quieter.

"Hey, you're Phantom! Do you happen to have a twin?" Mabel asked, still the same volume.

"Um….no? But we need to get Dipper help. I'll go find your friends. You wait here," Phantom said and flew away.

"Everything's so colorful...it hurts!" Dipper said and closed his eyes again.

"Dipper, I need you to open your eyes," Mabel said. He did as he was told and looked at her.

"Yep, definitely a concussion. Dipper, do you know who I am?" Mabel asked.

"You're Mabel. Are you a marshmallow? That person thinks so," Dipper asked.

"No, I'm your twin sister. We're best friends," she said. Right. Sister and friend.

"Oh yeah…...Mabel, it hurts…." he said.

"I know, but help is on the way,, and then it won't hurt anymore!" she told him. "The doctors will fix you right up, and then you can stop calling people marshmallows and go back to solving mysteries."

"Mysteries…" Dipper said.

"Yeah, mysteries. You love those. Guess what else you love?" Mabel asked.

"What?"

"Danny!" she exclaimed.

"I do?" Dipper asked. He doesn't remember that.

"Yeah, you always deny it, but I can tell. I am your sister, after all!" Mabel said.

"But Danny is a boy's name.." Dipper said.

"Yeah, it is. And that's okay. I fully support you, Dippin Dots!"

"But I'm not allowed to like anyone…" Dipper said.

"Why not?" Mabel asked.

"Because no one ever likes me back. No one ever will…." Dipper explained.

"Oh, Dipper. Do you really think that?" Mabel asked.

"That's what everyone at school says…...ah!" he said as the pain flared up again.

"Yeah, well the people at school are butt faces. I'll have to teach them a lesson when we get back," Mabel said. Dipper forgot what they were talking about again.

"Who?"

"The people at school. We were just talking about it," Mabel told him. He doesn't remember that, but…..

"Mabel, no. I want to fight my own battles. Prove I'm as strong as you. Maybe then they won't pick on me as much…." Dipper said.

"Dipper, you're definitely as strong as me. Just in different ways. You know how smart you are? I get jelly sometimes!" Mabel said. Dipper giggled.

"Jelly….. Don't get jelly Mabel, you're amazing…" Dipper told her. He tried to move his arms, but the strength left him. He managed to move one arm up an inch, but that's it.

'What do you need, Dipper?" Mabel asked.

"Hug?" Dipper aksed.

"Of course, Dipper, you know I love hugs!" Mabel exclaimed and hugged him.

"Over here!" he heard Phantom say.

"Phantom..?" Dipper aksed.

"No, that's Danny!" Mabel said. Dipper opened his eyes and saw four people he didn't recognize.

"Who are you people?" Dipper asked, scooting away.

"It's us Dipper, don't you recognize us?" asked the one with red hair.

"No…...there's too many colors….it hurts!" he yelled and closed his eyes again. He felt himself being lifted up. He screamed.

"Let go!" he yelled and pounded on the chest of the person holding him.

'It's okay, Dipper, it's just Soos. They're going to help you get to the doctors," Mabel told him. He calmed down and relaxed. Maybe he should take a quick nap….

"Oh no you don't," he heard a girl say. "Dipper, you can't fall asleep."

"But I'm tired!"

"No. Talk to us about something. Where are you from?" the girl asked.

"Somewhere in California"

"How are the people there?"

"The kids there are really mean, they say that I'm a loser." he felt himself being placed down, but didn't open his eyes.

"Who's talking to you right now?"  
"Um…..it starts with a W, but I don't know,"

"That's not good. Okay, what has happened in the past hour?"

"Well, I don't really remember, but there was a white haired boy and he threw me around with his bolo tie. It hurt a lot. Then this ghost named Phantom came and he saved me. He said he didn't kill them, and I believed him. Then Mabel came and took the bolo tie and gave it to Phantom. The White Haired Kid and me were flying. Then we weren't. Then he left and I talked to Mabel. Then you guys came."

"That sounds like one heck of a time. Was it scary?"

"Yeah. I thought I was going to die," he told them. He heard some people whispering in the background.

"Okay, we're here. Soos is going to pick you up again. Ready?" the girl said. Dipper didn't respond. He felt himself being picked up again and lots of loud noises. Since no one was telling him to stay awake anymore, he decided he was really tired and should go to sleep. Good night…

/

Dipper woke up to a white ceiling. His head was pounding.

"Ugh, where am I? I feel like I stuck my head in front of a bus and let it roll over me," he asked.

"Dipper!" he heard Mabel yell and hug him.

"Mabel. Head still hurts," he groaned and hugged her back.

"Sorry."

"What happened?" Dipper asked and looked around.

"Gideon threw you around and you got a concussion. What do you remember?" Mabel asked.

"I went to the address, Gideon was there, he threw my into some boxes, I hit my head, and then it's all a blur," Dipper told her, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah, Phantom came! He saved you! He's super cool. He said he didn't have a twin though," Mabel told him. He tries to remember, but all he can recall is Phantom telling him he didn't kill those people and Dipper saying he believed him.

"Oh. Well can we go home?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah, the doctors said you can go home when you wake up, as long as your head doesn't hurt too bad," Mabel said.

"Well, it hurts, but I don't feel like staying here, so let's just go home," Dipper said.

"Agreed!" Mabel said and Dipper stood up. A little wobbly at first, but otherwise fine. While they walked home, Dipper remembered his lie about the Danny List.

"Hey Mabel, you think you could knit a sweater for Danny?" Dipper asked.

"Glad you asked, dear brother! I have already started on one! It should be done by the end of next week!" she exclaimed.

"Okay, good."

As soon as Dipper walked into the Mystery Shack, he was bombarded with hugs and "I'm so glad you're okay"s. He smiled. Dipper decided he's had enough craziness for this week. Maybe he'd even stop reachearching Danny for a few days. He asked if he could be excused and went upstairs. He grabbed the box that was under his bed and pulled out a normal book. He opened to the first page and started reading. Yeah. He's going to have a completely normal week. No mysteries, no creatures, just him and his sister having fun for the summer.

/

Word Count: 8,424

Wow, longest thing I've ever written. So yeah, I've never actually had a concussion or seen someone with a concussion, so I'm basing this off what I've read in other stories. Sorry if it's completely off. I tried to have some Dipper and Mabel bonding during it, and I stand by the headcanon that Dipper has low self-esteem. I feel like it's pretty obvious that he's really insecure and while I know that being insecure and self-esteem are two different things, they are related. Also, considering that it's pretty much canon he gets bullied, I'd say it's pretty safe to say his self-esteem is probably not the best. Anyway, Merry late Christmas, and have a happy new year!


	5. Hey look it's a stereotypical headcanon

They were all hanging out in the gift shop. Dipper was sitting on his usual barrell, Mabel was spinning on a globe, Wendy was leaning on the counter, and Danny was sitting on the floor. He likes the floor, okay? He can hear even his mind judging him.

"Mabel, do you believe in ghosts?" Dipper asked. Danny perked up. Whenever he even hears the word "ghost" he is put on high alert.

"I believe you're a huge dork!" Mabel exclaimed and laughed. Dipper put a pencil tip to her globe making her fall off. Danny laughed. "Although we did see that one ghost like thing in the forest once…"

"How bout you, Danny?" Dipper asked him. Well, he'd be pretty surprised if he didn't….considering he _is_ one…

"Um….me? Well yeah, I guess…." Danny stuttered. Dipper narrowed his eyes at him. Danny internally flinched. Dipper is _so_ onto him.

"Soos! Wendy! Danny!" Stan yelled as he walked in. Danny saw Soos run up to him.

"What's up, ?" Soos asked.

"I'm heading out. You three are gonna wash the bathrooms, right?" Stan asked.  
"Yes, Sir!" Soos said and saluted.

"Absolutely not!" Wendy told him. Danny stayed silent, since he knew Soos would end up doing all of it.

"Ha ha! You three stay out of trouble! And Danny, watch the kids!" Stan said and left. Wendy walked over to a curtain and opened it.

"What's this? A secret ladder to the roof?" Wendy asked/stated. Danny had actually flown up to the roof on multiple occasions, but he didn't know there was another way up there. So _that's_ where the chair and umbrella came from. By the time he was paying attention again, Dipper and Mabel were already climbing the ladder chanting "ROOF TIME! ROOF TIME!" For someone who claims to be the mature twin, Dipper can get really caught up in his sister's antics. Danny followed the three of them up the ladder. He trailed behind Mabel as Wendy led them to the spot that Danny now recognizes as her hangout.

"Alright, check it out!" Wendy exclaimed.

"Did you put all this stuff up here?" Dipper asked.

"I may or may not sneak up here during work, all the time, every day," Wendy responded.

"Your lack of responsibility never ceases to amaze me, Wendy," Danny droned sarcastically as Wendy threw a pine cone at a totem pole.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

"Cool!" Dipper said excitedly.

"Me first!" Mabel said as she threw one. Dipper joined in as Danny sat back.

"Don't you want to throw some?" Dipper asked him.

"No thanks, I don't want to accidentally break something" he replied as Dipper threw a pinecone that hit a car. The car alarm went off. Dipper blused. "Wow, what a coincidence"

"Jackpot! High five," She said. Dipper met her hand with his. "Oh, hey, it's my friends!" she stated as a car pulled up.

"Wendy!" a voice exclaimed as a hand came out of car.

"Hey, you guys aren't going to tell Stan about this, are you?" Wendy asked.

Dipper zipped his lips and Wendy did the same.

"Hey Danny, wanna come with?" Wendy asked. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Someone has to make sure stuff gets done around here," he said. Now Wendy rolled her eyes as she climbed down some trees to get to the car and drove away.

"You didn't want to go? You'd think that being a teenager you'd be a lot more open to goofing around," Dipper said suspiciously.

"Yeah, well it's that kind of goofing off that got everyone I loved killed," Danny snapped at them. As he saw the look of shock appear on their faces, he sighed. "I'm sorry guys, just seeing Wendy act like that reminds me of how I was before the accident,"he told them. Even he wasn't sure which accident he was referring to. The one that half-killed him,or the one that killed everyone else. He decided to cool off a bit by training. His telekinesis could always use some work. "I gotta go guys. Training helps me cool off," he told them and jumped off the roof, grabbing a tree branch moments before he hit the ground, then strode off into the forest. As he walked into the trees, he realized he probably shouldn't have jumped off the roof like mentioned his training. Dang it! As much as he hates to admit it, Vlad is right. He needs to learn to control his temper. He screamed in frustration as shot an ecto blast at a random tree. As much as he tries not to show it, he has no idea what he's doing. What's even the point anyway? He failed. He couldn't protect them. He feels like there's a hole in him that's only multiplied when he goes ghost. Even if that hole is slowly being filled up by being around Dipper and Mabel, he knows it'll always be there. And he also, deep down, knows why it's there. It's because he failed his obsession. He heard from his parents when he was very little about ghost has one. It's what drives them to do anything. Any action they takes is fueled by their obsession. They will always continue to pursue it, no matter what. It's why Skulker keeps coming after him time and time again. If a ghost fails their obsession, they go insane. The only reason he hasn't yet is because he's half human. He probably would have eventually if he hadn't found Dipper and Mabel. He then remembered what he came here to do. He looks around and sees a big boulder. He doesn't go ghost today for his training. He's learned that when developing a new power, after learning how to use it, it's best to train it in human form. Everything is harder in his human form, so if he can master it like that, doing it in his ghost form will be a cinch. He activated his telekinesis and lifts the boulder. It takes effort, but easier than when he first learned about this power. He moves it up and down, left and right, then just tries to hold it for as long as he can. He sits down and makes it about five minutes before he is forced to let go. He rests for a few minutes before trying again. He repeats this process five times and eventually is able to hold the rock up for seven minutes. He decides to move on to a different power. He has been working on extending the range of his ect blasts for a while now. He aims up, and lets the power build up in his hand. When he released it, it goes far, but not nearly as far as his maximum range. He must have spent all of his energy on the telekinesis. He should have noticed. He hears rustling next to him and he turns. He prepares another ecto blast in his hand, and prepares to strike the area he heard the noise from.

"Danny?" he hears a familiar voice call. He quickly dissipates the ecto blast right before he sees Dipper emerge from the bushes. Crap. Did Dipper follow him? Did he see him use his powers? "What was that green light?" Dipper asked him. He breathed a sigh of relief. So he hadn't seen him.

"Oh, that? Um...it was my..flashlight? It has a green light option on it," he lied and internally facepalmed. You'd think he'd be better at lying considering how much of it he did. Dipper narrowed his eyes at him.

"Yeah..so where's the flashlight?" Dipper questioned suspiciously.

"Uh...I dropped it?" Oh my God.

"Look Danny, just tell me the truth. I know you're hiding something, and I'm going to figure it out either way," Dipper told him.

"I'm sorry Dipper, but I can't tell you. You can keep trying to figure it out, but I can't risk losing you and Mabel because you don't like the answer to your questions," Danny told him. He knew he was being selfish, and he knew that they deserved an answer, but he really likes Dipper and Mabel, and he doesn't want them to hate him,or worse, call the Guys in White.

"I'll figure it out eventually," Dipper said.

"Can we just go back to the Shack?" Danny asked. Dipper sighed and nodded.

/

"Random dance party for no reason!" Mabel exclaimed and pressed play on a stereo she had dragged into the gift shop. Both Mabel and Wendy started dancing. Danny was in a much better mood today, so he joined in. He glanced over at Dipper, who was writing something down on a clipboard. He walked over to him.

"Whatcha got there?" He asked. He looked over Dipper's shoulder to see in his handwriting: _I am pretending to write something down_. "Okaaaay...Wanna join our dance party?" Danny asked. Dipper blushed. "I...uh..don't really dance…" Dipper mumbled. Danny turned around to see Mabel with a smirk on her face.

"Yeah, you do! Mom used to dress him up in a lamb costume and make him do….the Lamby Dance!"

"Now is not the time to talk about the Lamby Dance!" Dipper whispered angrily to Mabel.

"Lamb Costume? Wow, is there like little ears and a tail or..?" Wendy asked.

"Well, uh.." Dipper mumbled, blushing hard. Just then, Wendy's phone beeped.

"Hey, look at that! Quittin' time! The gang's waiting for me," Wendy said. "We're gonna go to a haunted convenience store. It's gonna be awesome!" Danny perked up at that.

"Hey, can I come?" he asked.

"I thought you were and all that," Wendy accused him.

"I was in a bad mood yesterday, sorry," he told her.

"Then yeah,I guess. You have a weird way of showing your bad moods," Wendy said.

"Okay, just a sec, I need to get something," he said and went up to Dipper and Mabel's room. He's now taken to sharing a bed with one of the twins, depending on the night. He doesn't know why Stan doesn't just give him his own room at this point. He reaches into the back wall at the stop where he'd stored the Fenton Thermos and pulled it out. When he had got back down,he could see Mabel dancing around Dipper singing "love love love love love!" Did Dipper have a crush on someone? Danny wonders who it is. Maybe Wendy? It would have to be,considering she's the only girl in the Shack.

"Oh hey, what's that?"Dipper asked and points in a random direction. As Mabel turns, he flips her hair over her face.

" . Bleh," she says and Danny walks out of the hallway.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

"YEAH!" Mabel screamed and Dipper just nodded. They walked out to people chanting Wendy's name.

"Hey guys! These are my pals from work, Mabel, Dipper, and Danny," Wendy introduced them.

"I chewed my gum so it looks like a brain! BLAH!" Mabel exclaimed. She stuck out her tongue, which had some gum on it. No one said anything.

"She's not much for first impressions." Dipper said as he pointed to himself. "Unlike this guy!...this guy…" Danny rolled his eyes.

"That's Dipper. I'm Danny, I like Astronomy."

"So are you like babysitting or...and what's that nerd doing here?" A black haired guy asked.

"Come on, Robbie! Guys this is Lee and Nate," Wendy said and pointed to a blond haired guy and a guy with a blue hat kinda like Dipper's. They punched each other. "Tambry," she pointed to a girl who was on her phone.

"Hey," she said without looking up.

"Thompson, who once ate a run over waffle for 50 cents," Wendy pointed to an overweight guy who looked self conscious.

"Don't tell them that!"

"And Robbie. You can probably figure him out," Wendy finished.

"Yeah. I'm the guy who spray painted the water tower," he said smugly.

"Oh, you mean the big muffin!" Dipper supplied.

"Um, it's a giant explosion," Robbie snapped. Everyone looked at the water tower.

"Hehe! It kinda does look like a muffin!" Lee giggled. Both Lee and Nate laughed. Robbie glared at Dipper. Dipper smiled sheepishly.

"Let's hurry it up, guys. I got big plans for tonight!" Wendy intervened. Everyone got into the car. It Danny ended up in the back, in the middle of Dipper and Mabel.

"Okay just, before we go, my mom said you guys aren't allowed to punch the roof anymore, so…" Everyone in front of them started punching the roof and yelling "Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!" Danny rolled his eyes. This is the one teen stereotype he had managed to avoid in high school, and now here he is, hanging out with them. Next to him, Mabel took a pen from Dipper, which he was probably about to chew on, and crossed out a "You stink" on the then wrote "You look nice today!" instead.

"Mabel, please!" Dipper exclaimed.

"What, am I embarrassing you in from of your new BOYFRI-" Mabel was cut off as Dipper leaned across him to cover Mabel's mouth.

"Ugh! Did you just lick my hand?" Danny then truly processed what Mabel was saying.

"Wait! Dipper, you're gay?" Danny asked.

"What? No! I mean, yes! I mean, I don't know! I mean-" Danny cut him off.

"Woah, Dipper! It's fine! You don't have to know! But...who is it? I didn't know you had even met someone outside of the Shack!" Danny questioned.

"Oh my God, not you too Danny!" Dipper bushed and hid his face in his hands. Danny laughed but let it Dipper didn't want to tell him his crush, he didn't have to. After all, it's not like Danny is telling him everything.

/

"There it is, fellas! The condemned Dusk 2 Dawn!" Wendy exclaimed. Everyone except for Danny made excited noises.

"Why'd they shut it down, was it like a health code violation or-" Dipper was interrupted by Nate.

"Try MURDER!"

"Some folks died in there, the place has been haunted ever since!" Lee explained.

"This town has such a colorful history!" Mabel mused.

"Wha...are you guys serious?" Dipper asked.

"Yeah! We're all gonna die! Chill out man!" Wendy punches Dipper in the shoulder. It's not as bad as it looks," Is this what teens do for fun? He's here to talk to the ghosts, and capture them if necessary. He would like to avoid that though, since the new portal isn't done yet. He knows how horrible the Fenton Thermos is. He shuddered as he remembered the one time Sam had put him in there because he wouldn't let them take over for patrol. Everyone started climbing the fence and Danny was the first one over it. Eventually everyone was over except for Dipper and Lee.

"Come on Dipper!" Wendy yelled at him.

"Okay, okay! Just gotta get a foothold…"

"Dude, your sister did it!"

"Dipper, you battled an animated wax figure! You can do this!" Lee came up behind Dipper.

"Hey, you know what. Just….There you go," Lee said and dropped Dipper off the fence. Danny ran and caught him. Danny set Dipper down and picked up his hat.

"Don't sweat it Dipper. Teenagers are jerks," he told him as they walked over to the store.

"Wow! This place is amazing!" Wendy said in awe. Robbie tried to open the door, but it didn't move.

"Ithink it's, it's stuck!" he grunted.

"Let me take a crack at it!" Dipper said. Danny inwardly flinched. Dipper is really doing a good job at embarrassing himself today.

"Oh yeah, I can't get in, but I'm sure Junior here is gonna break it down like Hercules!" Robbie sneered.

"Come on, leave him alone. He's just a little kid," Wendy said. Danny hopes Dipper makes it. He knows that you should never underestimate someone because of their age. He watched as Dipper walks around to the dumpster on the side of the wall and jumps on top of it. He then jumps up and pulls himself up onto the roof.

"Woah, Kid, what are you doing?" Tambry asks. Danny smirks as Dipper punches in the air vent.

"Go Dipper! Punch that metal thing!" Mabel scrames. As he walks inside, Wendy starts to yell as well.

"Woah Dipper, take it easy!"

"And why should he? All you guys have been doing since he came is make fun of him. I can't blame him for wanting to prove himself. He's more capable than you think, you know,"Danny said. He watched as Wendy's expression changes toone of guilt.

"Who wants to bet he doesn't make it?" Robbie asks. Danny does not like this guy. That's when Dipper came out the door. He guestered for everyone to go inside. He was last in the line.

"Nice!" He said and high fived him. Dipper walked in after him.

"Do you guys really think it's haunted?" Thompson asked.

"Na! Thompson are you kidding me?" Nate asked. That's when his ghost sense went off. He wasn't entirely sure if there were actually ghosts here before, but now he is.

"Everyone, get out. There's a ghost here," he said calmly.

"What? Dude, that's just a story," Wendy said.

"I knew bringing him was a bad idea. How didn't you know your friend was a crazy person who believes in ghost stories?" Robbie asked.

"I'm being very serious. Get out NOW," Danny exclaimed.

"Danny, is everything alright? Look, there no gho-" Dipper started and Danny cut him off.

"If I hear one more person tell me that there's no ghost then I will physically force you out of here!" Danny yelled.

"Oh my gosh! Smile Dip! I thought this stuff was banned in America!" he heard Mabel exclaim from behind him. Everyone dispersed after this to do their own thing. Danny sighed. There might be no way to convince them to leave. He's just going to have to wait for the ghost to show themselves. He went to sit in a corner and closed his eyes. He had been training his ghost sense to be more specific, so he can tell relatively where the ghost is, and not just that there is one. Right now, the ghost seems to be near….the ice box? He wonders what it's doing there? Then, it moves to the Dancy Pants Revolution game. He hopes that the ghost isn't too powerful, so that if he has to fight it, he would be able to finish the fight quickly.

"Danny!" he feels a tug on his arm. "You were right! This place is haunted!" he opened his eyes to see Dipper. In his peripheral vision, he sees everyone at the Dancy Pants Revolution.

"Oh just great, the ghost is at the Dancy Pants Revolution! This is just what I wanted to do today, save some stupid teenagers who wouldn't listen to my warnings without even using my powers." he says as he runs towards the game.

"Woah guys, you might wanna see this." he heard Robbie say. He followed the crowd over to where there was two outlines of bodies.

"Woah. Then the rumors are true!' Lee exclaimed. Danny groaned internally. How in the world is he supposed to get them out of this?

"Dude, I dare you to lay down in it," Robbie told him.

"How absolutely idiotic can you be? I've already warned you multiple times about the ghost, well probably two ghosts,and you want to do something _that_ disrespectful?" Danny burst out. He was ignored by all except for Wendy.

"Danny, dude, chill out. It's just a joke."

"Go lie down in it!" Lee told Nate.

"I'm a dead body, look!" Nate said and walked over to the markings.

"Wait! Maybe let's not do that," Dipper intervened. Danny silently thanked Dipper for listening to him.

"Not you to!" Lee groaned.

"All I'm saying is, why tempt the fates? I mean..what if this place really is...haunted?" All the teens started jeering and booing him.

"Yeah, just take it down a notch, Captain Buzzkill!" Robbie complained.

"I thought I was …"Dipper said meekly.

"Well, you're acting like Captain Buzzkill. Right?" Robbie asked everyone. Danny thought he was the one rational being in the store,but everyone else nodded. Even Wendy agreed with him.

"Status update: Trapped in store with insane nine year old," Tambry droned.

"I'm not a nine year old!" Dipper exclaimed. "I'm thirteen! Technically a teen!" he began to lie down on the tape markings.

"Dipper, wait!" Danny exclaimed,but it was too late. The markings on the floor lit up, and all the lights turned out. Tambry looked up from her phone, only to disappear. Great. They were dealing with some powerful ghosts. Ones that could teleport people.

"Here we go…" Danny groaned. Dipper picked up Tambry's phone.

"Status Update: AUGGGGGG" he read. Tambry appeared on the security camera. She screamed and tapped on the glass. How is Danny going to fight? He doesn't have any weapons, he was only able to get the Thermos and some blueprints. Will he have to use his powers? He really doesn't want to reveal himself, especially not to some random teens he barely knows.

"Tambry! Tambry!" Wendy yelled.

"Everyone stay calm! I'm going to get us out of here!"

"Why should we listen to you? For all we know, you're the ghost! You knew it was here!" Robbie screamed. "Let's just go already!" he continued. He would leave his friend here?

"Thompson!" Wendy yelled.

"Wait! I almost got the high score!" Thompson panted. He then disappeared like Tambry did.

"Oh no!" Dipper said.

"Thompson!" Wendy exclaimed.

"Forget them! Let's go!" Robbie yelled and ran towards the door. The doors slammed closed.

"What the...Guys...it's locked!" Wendy told them.

"OUTTA MY WAY!" Robbie screamed and threw a cash register at the doors, but it just flew right back at him.

"Everybody, wait! Whatever's doing this has to have some kind of reason!" Dipper got out the journal. "Maybe is we can figure it out, they'll let us out of here!" Dipper said. Danny was about to agree with him, but Robbie interrupted him.

"Uh-uh they'll let us out of here! Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!" Robbie mocked.

"He's right!" Danny told them. "All ghosts have an obsession, something that drives them. If we can figure out what that is, we can use it to our advantage!"

"Yeah right, I'm sure the ghost just wants to talk about his feelings!" Lee sneered. He then also disappears into a cereal box.

"I'm bonkers for eating you alive!" It screamed and Danny covered Dipper's eyes and closed his as well.

"Lee! Okay, I'm with you kid! 100% man!" Nate said. Mabel flew up behind him.

"Welcome" she said in a deep voice.

"They got Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed.

"One of the ghosts is overshadowing her! It's when a ghost takes over a person's body and controls their movements!" Danny explained. How could he push the ghost out without anyone noticing?

"Welcome to your graves, young trespassers," Mabel said. She kicked her legs and laughed.

"We're super sorry for hanging out in your store!" Wendy yelled.

"Yeah! Can we just go now and leave forever?" Dipper asked.

"Guys! What about everyone else?" Danny asked. Danny could see this coming from Robbie, but Dipper? Especially since they have his sister!

"We can come back later!" Dipper said.

"Well….okay. You're free to go,"Mabel said and the doors opened. "But before you leave, hot dogs are now half off. I know it might be crazy, but you gotta try these dogs!" Nate and Robbie screamed and ran for the door. The doors closed again. "Just kidding about the hot dog sale!"

"Just let us out of here!" Nate screamed.

"I don't like your tone!" Mabel sneered and Nate disappeared. He reappeared as a hot dog.

"It begins!" Everything started floating. "Welcome to your home for all eternity!" A flying shelf was thrown at them. Danny had to grab Dipper and Wendy to stop them from being hit. Robbie disappeared, but Danny couldn't find when he reappeared at.

" _ **ENOUGH!**_ " Danny screamed. Everything stopped. He felt himself Go Ghost, but found that he wasn't in control of his body. " _ **I, Danny Phantom, defeater of Pariah Dark, new king of the Ghost Zone, command you to release my friends at once and let us leave in peace. I apologize on their behalf for trespassing on your lair**_ ," Mabel looked shocked.

"Yes, my lord" She said and two ghosts came into existence. There was an old man and an old woman. The doors opened and they disappeared.

"TIME OUT" Danny heard a voice say. A ghost he recognized as Clockwork appeared.

" _ **You!"**_ he exclaimed. " _ **You tried to kill me!**_ " What's wrong with his voice?

"It was all for the best outcome. Yes, your family died, yes I could have prevented it, but it was all for the most desirable outcome. Trust me when I say this was for the best,"

" _ **The death of my family was FOR THE BEST?**_ "

He roared. How dare he say that their death was good! How dare he! Danny lunged at Clockwork, but he just froze him. Clockwork sighed.

"I predicted this would happen. If you want to know what's happening, you need to calm down," Clockwork told him. He took a few deep breaths. Clockwork is right. He wants information, so he needs to listen. Clockwork seemed to sense that he was calm, so he was unfrozen.

" _ **What's wrong with my voice?**_ " Danny asked.

"Did you think that defeating Pariah Dark would have no affect on you? How do you think Pariah became the ghost king in the first place?" Clockwork asked him.

" _ **I don't know, I just assumed he was always the king**_ ," Danny shrugged.

"The way to become the ruler of the Ghost Zone is to defeat the previous ruler," Clockwork explained. Danny's eyes widened.

" _ **But then wouldn't the ghosts that locked him away be ruling right now?**_ " He asked.

"They were a special case. They were watching over the Ghost Zone, but becoming a ruler would restrict their power," Clockwork explained.

" _ **So what's going on?**_ " Danny asked. " _ **And what's wrong with my voice?**_ " He repeated his earlier question, hoping it would finally be answered.

"This is how the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage affect their users. Pariah Dark had already been using them for so long, his voice and appearance stayed that way," Clockwork said. Danny looked at his hands, to see what he recognized as the Ring of Rage. He looked up and saw the Crown of Fire.

" _ **No way. How long will I stay like this?**_ "

"As long as you want to. Most likely, they will disappear once you revert to your human form," Could he just summon the crown and ring whenever he wanted? No, probably not.

" _ **Why didn't this happen before?**_ "

"As you know, a Ghost's energy is made of emotion. With the extreme emotions of everyone in the room, along with the concentrated amount of energy needed to trap those teens, the crown and ring were summoned to your side,"

" _ **Wait...will I have to go rule the Ghost Zone now?**_ " Danny asked nervously. He didn't want to leave Gravity Falls.

"The Ghost Zone has gone years without a ruler. I think they can wait a few more until you're ready," Clockwork said with a small smile.

" _ **What if I'm never ready?**_ "

"You will be. TIME IN" Then, Clockwork was gone, and everything started moving again. Everyone who was trapped started crawling out from under shelves, and Danny changed back before anyone could see. He immediately felt dizzy.

"Danny? What was-" That was all he heard before he passed out.

/

 **Woo look it's another chapter! I honestly was going to just keep the Gravity Falls plot, but then I was like, screw it, let's change it up. So yay! Originality. Expect more! Hope you enjoyed, and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated! Guess who loves constructive criticism? ME! See you next chapter!**


	6. Vlad?

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated the story, I've kinda been procrastinating. I have absoulutley no idea how to start it. But anyway, I have a question for you all. I will be putting up a poll on my account. Here's the question:

I kind of want to add Vlad into the story, but I feel like it would be kind of random. So, I want your opinion. Here are the three options.

1\. Add a caring Vlad

2\. Add a villain Vlad

3\. Just leave him out.

I will try to start on the new chappie soon.

Thanks for reading!


	7. Dipper has low self-esteem

Dipper watched Danny intently. He was still sleeping, and Dipper was sure Mabel would make fun of him later, but Dipper wanted to be there the exact moment Danny woke up. They had carried Danny home and tied him to Mabel's bed as soon as they got there. Luckily Stan wasn't home yet. Dipper didn't even want to know what he was doing out. He heard a groan from in front of him.

"Ugh, I feel like I got ganged up on by Spectra, Skulker, and Youngblood," Dipper immediately stood up, ignoring the strange names.

"MABEL!" He screeched. "HE'S AWAKE!" He heard footsteps and soon the familiar face that was his sister's appeared in the doorway.

"Dipper? Mabel? What's going on? Why am I tied up?" Danny asked after trying to sit up. He snorted but then shook his head.

"Um...care to share?" Dipper asked.

"Just a funny thought," Danny snickered. Then he seemed to remember his surroundings.

"I'll repeat my question...why am I tied up?" Mabel didn't give him a chance to answer as she shined a light in Danny face and asked:

"Who are you?" as if she was interrogating him in one of those old black and white movies.

"Danny Fenton, son of Jack and Maddie Fenton," he drones automatically. "What just happened," he asked almost directly after. Dipper flipped open to a page in the journal.

"Truth Telling Teeth," Dipper started to explain. "We fashioned them into a pair of fake vampire teeth so you can't lie to us."

"Sigh….I knew this day wou-" Danny cut himself off.

"HOLY SHIIIIIII-SNICKERDOODLE! HOLY SNICKERDOODLE!" Danny exclaimed. Dipper guessed that was the moment he remembered what happened.

"So...what happened last night?" Dipper asked.

"Apparently I'm the new ghost king," Danny said in awe. "Wow. Wow. Just. Um, can I have a few minutes to process this?" Danny sputtered.

"So this is new for you?" Dipper asked.

"Yes. Wow. Yes, definitely new," Danny said with wide eyes.

"So, you weren't born a ghost?" Mabel asked.

"No. That's not new though," Danny explained. "Hey can I get these taken out? I promise to tell the truth," Danny requested. Dipper looked to Mabel, who shrugged. Dipper leaned over and took out the vampire teeth. He handed them to Mabel, who put them in a ziplock bag.

"So, we're going to ask you questions and you're going to answer them truthfully, we'll let you out when we deem you safe," Dipper explained.

"Can I just start from the beginning? It'll take less time, and this is really uncomfortable," Danny asked, squirming. Dipper nodded.

"Okay, so….

"Wow.." Dipper whispered. Danny has been through so much!

"Yeah.."

"Um, can I be untied now?" Danny asked sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah!" Mabel exclaimed as she bounded around the room and pulled on the string that was keeping Danny tied to the bed. It occurred to Dipper that Danny probably could have easily gotten untied if he really wanted to. As soon as he was untied, he stretched his arms and legs before jumping back up.

"I think I'm going to-" Danny was cut off by the door opening. It was the same guy that Danny was arguing with. Dipper found his wrist being pulled on as he was tugged behind him. He could have sworn he saw the man roll his eyes a bit.

"Please Daniel, I'm not here to hurt your friends," he sneered, Danny growled.

"Yeah, well it wouldn't be the first time," The man's expression softened and he sighed.

"Daniel-" he was cut off by Danny.

"Don't "Daniel" me!" He stood up straight, no longer seeming to be in a fighting stance, although he was still tense. He heard Mabel snort next to him. Everyone's eyes moved to her.

"Ah, and you must be Mabel, correct?" He asked with a small smirk. This was when Dipper stepped in. He was fine before, but this man felt a little too threatening to be talking to his sister.

"Um, I'm sorry, who are you, and how did you get in here?" He asked, trying to push his fear away. The man could probably smell it though, as he continued to smirk.

"Vlad Masters, and well, I got in the same way little Daniel here does every night," Dipper looked over at Danny, who burst out laughing.

"Ha- oh my gosh- Ha ha- did you seriously just put yourself to jab at me? Joke's on you, they already know!" Danny hugged between laughs.

"Oooooooh, you come in through the walls right. Oh my gosh Danny, what does it feel like to have a ghost go through you? Is it all gross like in the movies or-" Dipper cut her off with a hand to her mouth.

"So, um, I never really got answers form this, just more questions. Why are you here?" Dipper asked him.

"I'm here to talk to Daniel. Alone," Vald emphasized alone, and Dipper understood the message. He wanted them out.

"Uh, yeah, not happening Vlad. How do I know that there isn't a duplicate waiting outside that door to ambush them?" Danny asked. Vlad didn't answer.

"...Daniel, this is between you and me-" Vlad tried to start.

"And I don't trust you. If you want to talk to me," he pulled Dipper and Mabel into his lap." You're gonna have to deal with them," Dipper blushed involuntary and Mabel sent him a sly smile. He patted his cheeks, trying to get them to return to their normal shade of unusually pale white. He didn't even understand why he was blushing! He didn't like Danny! It was a ridiculous notion! Danny. Is. His. Friend!

Vlad sighed.

"Very well, I suppose. I wanted to come here to...to" Vlad sighed again. "To apologize." Dipper looked up at Danny, who had wide eyes.

"The...the way I treated you was not okay..and I took it too far even if I was trying to help you learn-" Vlad cut himself off when he looked at Dipper and Mabel. "Daniel can you please stop with your insistence on keeping them in here! I already apologized, you know how hard that is for me, isn't that enough for me to have proved my sincerity!" Vlad yelled. Danny slowly nodded and released them from his lap. As Dipper excited, he gave Danny a small, encouraging smile. Or at least Dipper hoped it was encouraging. He didn't really know. As soon as he turned around, Mabel has pounced on him like a hungry tiger.

"Don't think I didn't notice that blush, Dipper!" Dipper decided it was best to ignore her. "Or that smile!" Dipper rolled his eyes and started making his way downstairs.

"Hey, I'm actually pretty hungry. Do you wanna go get some food?" Dipper asked Mabel. He wasn't actually that hungry, but he wanted to change the subject. When he looked at Mabel, she nodded.

"Yeah! We should go get pancakes! Wait, what about Danny?" she asked. Dipper shrugged.

"They'll probably be in there for a while. We'll leave a note in case," Dipper told her. She nodded.

"Okay! Let's go ask Grunkle Stan!" She told her and started running ahead of him. Dipper smirked at how easy she was to distract. "Don't think I didn't notice what you did though!" She yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Dipper's smile fell. He sighed and trotted after Mabel. They walked into the gift shop to see Stan handing a jar of broken glass to Tyler Cutebiker. They waited until Tyler walked away to approach Stan.

"Grunkle Stan?" he started.

"Can we go to the diner?" Mabel finished for him. "We're huuuungry." Mabel grabbed her fat rolls and moved them up and down. Dipper did the same.

"Huuuungry!" They hit their fat rolls against each other and made groaning noises. Grunkle Stan didn't seem phased by their actions.

"Yeah, sure. As soon as this yahoo makes up his mind," Grunkle stan shrugs and points to Tyler.

"Do you have this in another animal?" he asked as he pointed to a furry fish on the wall.

"I'm fine locking him inside if you are," Stan suggested. Mabel and Dipper nodded. He probably wouldn't be done for a while anyway. They all walked out the door and piled into the car. They drove mostly in silence, to Dipper's surprise. Usually Mabel's excitedly talking about something by this point.

"Hey, you okay? You haven't talked this whole time," Dipper nudged Mabel as they got out of the car.

"Yeah, I'm just worried about Danny," she bit her lip.

"Hey, it's Danny. He can take care of himself. Besides, the man seemed like he was there to apologize or something," he tried to reassure her, although in reality he was worried too. But, he should take his own advice. He'll talk to Dany later. Mabel smiled at him and seemed to feel better as he opened the door to the diner. Dipper was surprised to see an abundance of people at the diner. They struggled to find a open booth. Almost immediately after they sat down, Lazy Susan approached them.

"Lazy Susan! There's my little ray of sunshine! Where were you yesterday?" Grunkle Stan asked. It was weird to see Stan be this friendly to anyone, and kind of disturbing.

"I got hit by a bus!" She answered. Dipper couldn't tell if she was serious or not. He hoped not. Stan started pounding his fist on the table.

"Ha ha ha! Hilarious!" Dipper narrowed his eyes. Grunkle Stan was acting very…..different.

"Thank you!" She did this weird awkward laugh thing.

"You do split plates, right?" Grunkle Stan asked.

"Maybe…..Wink!" Lazy Susan grabbed her "lazy" eyelid and moved it up and back down.

"Great! We'll all split a one fourth of the number seven, plus a free salad dressing for the lady, and a small plate of ketchup for the boy," Grunkle Stan said. Dipper internally groaned. He really shouldn't have expected any less.

"But Grunkle Stan, I want pancakes!" Mabel whined leaning back against the booth. Stan scoffed.

"With the fancy flour they use these days? What am I, made of money?" As he said that, a bill falls out of his sleeve. "Tap tap." Stan pushed it back in. Mabel pouted and rested her head on the table.

"Awww…" Dipper saw something in the corner of his eye. He smirked and sat up straighter.

"Don't worry guys, pancakes are on me. I'm gonna win some by beating that manliness tester!" He stated confidently. When he looked over and saw the smirk on Stan and Mabel's faces, he slouched in his seat.

"Manliness tester?" Mabel laughed. Dipper's smile fell.

"Beating?" Stan echoed. They both burst out laughing. Dipper ignored the pang in his chest.

"What? What's so funny?" He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Oh, no offense Dipper, but you're not exactly Manny Mannington," Mabel teased once she recovered. Dipper sputtered and shrunk lower into his seat.

"Hey I am too Manly...Manny...or whatever it is you said!" He claimed. They both burst out laughing again.

"Look face the music, kid. You got no muscles, you smell like baby wipes, and let's not forget last Tuesday's….incident," Stan said and Dipper blushed remembering it.

"You were listening to girly Icelandic sensation BABBA?" Mabel asked, still laughing. Dipper's face was burning.

"No," he laughed nervously. "I wasn't. It's not important. Look come on guys, I'm plenty masculine! You see this chest hair?" He pulls down his shirt to find an exact number of chest hairs on him.

"Ew, gross! Put it away!" Mabel exclaimed, waving her arms in front of her.

"Yeah, no one wants to see your wimpy prepubescent chest!" Stan agreed. Dipper pulled his shirt up.

"Fine, family of little faith. Get ready to eat your words." He stated confidently, even though he was very unsure inside. He stood up. "And a plate of delicious pancakes!" He walked over to the manliness tester and ignore the eyes following him. "Alright Dipper, time to manhandle...this...man handle.." As he prepared to take the test, he got more and more anxious. He felt himself start to sweat. "And a one and a two-"

"QUIT STALLING!" Stan yelled from their table. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, he grabbed the handle and tugged it as hard as he could. He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see what was happening. Eventually he heard a ding. He opened his eyes to see a light on the word "wimp". A little card came out that said "you are a cutie patootie!" His face burned with embarrassment. He started stuttering.

"Oh, what? T-this thing must be broken. It's totally broken guys. It's like a million years old, probably ran out of steam power or-" his rant is cut off by Manly Dan. He pushed Dipper out of the way and prepares to take the test.

"It's rickety man, you shouldn't even-" He tried to say, but never finishes. Dan pushes the handle with his pinky, and it lights up at the "Manly Man" light.

"Yes! Pancakes for everyone!" Dan cheered. The machine exploded and pancakes started flying everywhere. One landed on Dipper's head. He took it off and started nibbling on it. When he noticed Mabel and Stan laughing at he, he wanted to be invisible.

"I need to find some chest hair and fast," he says and runs out of the restaurant. Not look where he was going, he ran straight into someone. When he looked up, he was surprised to see Danny's face looking down at him.

"Dipper? What's going on? Are you okay?" He asked and Dipper hurriedly nodded.

"I'm fine!" He sniffed, his voice cracking. Before he could embarrass himself more, he ran off. He tore into his pancake while he walked.

"Not Manly enough, stupid diner, stupid lumberjack…" He was sprayed by water. Is this for real? He's already having a horrible day, and now he gets sprayed by random water? He drops his pancake and backs up. He accidentally bumps into a woman. He was about to apologize, but the woman started talking.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was looking for the mailman," She said politely. Dipper's mouth started moving before he could stop it.

"Oh, what? Are you saying that I'm not a male man? Is that what you're trying to say? I'm not male, I'm not a man? Is that-is that what you're getting at?" He asked.

"Are you crying?" The woman asked him, seeming concerned. Dipper shook his head.

"Where are your parents, sweetie?" The woman asked him. He opened his mouth to say something but a voice cut him off.

"Dipper! There you are!" He turned around to see Danny running towards him. "Sorry about my brother, he likes to run off." Danny put his arm around Dipper's shoulder and steered him away.

"Why'd you lie to her?" Dipper asked Danny.

"You seemed like you didn't want to talk to her, so I stepped in." Danny removed his arm from around Dipper's shoulder, and Dipper was more than slightly disappointed. "Stan and Mabel told me what happened. You okay?" Dipper slouched at the mention of what had happened in the diner.

"Yeah I'm fine. I'm going to the forest to become more….manly I guess," Dipper explained.

"You know you don't have to be stereotypically 'manly' to be awesome, right? You may not have the biggest muscles, but.." Danny tapped Dipper's head. "That brain of yours more than makes up for anything," Dipper smiled at Danny.

"I know, I'm just tired of people teasing me about it," Dipper sighed. Danny grinned and clapped his hands together.

"Good. Well, I guess I have no choice but to help you with your endeavors, now that all that adult stuff is out of the way!" Dipper smiled and started walking towards the forest. Danny followed him.

"2…..3….4…." Dipper panted as he bench-pressed a small log. Danny had gone off somewhere to train his powers. Dipper doesn't know why he had to leave to do that, he's actually quite interested in how they work. Maybe Danny didn't feel comfortable around him yet. While he wasn't exactly fond of that thought, he had to respect Danny's decisions. He threw the log to the side and looked inside his shirt.

"No chest hair yet," he sighed. He laid on the ground. "Is it physical, is it mental, what's the secret?" he asked no one in particular. Dipper picks up the bag of beef jerky Danny had bought for him. YOU'RE INADEQUATE! He read. "You said it brother, I need help." He felt the ground start to shake, He looked to the side to see different animals running past him. He got out of the way. Manly Dan came out with them.

"For the love of all that's holy, run!" he yelled. Dipper didn't have time to question why Manly Dan was in the forest as a tree started to fall towards where his hat was. He ran and grabbed it before the tree reached the stump it was sitting on. A shadow approached him and he cowered. He screamed but then stopped.

"Wait, sorry." Dipper lowered his voice an octave and screamed again. He started coughing. A...thing came out of the shadows and...yawned? He scrambles back as the thing threw away the log he was hiding behind.

"Please don't eat me! I haven't showered! In like a week! And, I'm all elbows! Elbows and gristle-" the thing interrupted him.

"YOU," Dipper screamed. "Gonna finish that?" the thing asked. Dipper immediately relaxed, realizing that the creature was friendly. He looked at the jerky and tossed it to the thing.

"No. I can't believe it, part animal, part human. Are you some kind of Minotaur?" he asked.

"I'm a manotaur! Half man, half-" The manotaur was interrupted.

"DIPPER!" Suddenly ghost Danny was in front of him, blocking him from the manotaur.

"No, Danny, it's fine! He's friendly!" Dipper explained. "He's a manotaur!" Danny looked back at him.

"A what-otaur?" The manotaur answered for him.

"A manotaur! Half man! Half...uh...taur!"

"Why're you here?" Danny asked him, moving so that he was floating next to Dipper. It was still really weird to see Danny in such a un-human like form.

"The smell of jerky summoned me! JERKY!" the manotaur punched a tree down and smashed his head against a rock. Dipper briefly wondered if he should check for a concussion. The manotaur started sniffing. Dipper looked at Danny, but he just shrugged. "I smell….emotional issues!" Danny looked at him and then back to the manotaur.

"Yeah, I have no idea which one of us you're referring to." The manotaur pointed to Dipper.

"You! The scrawny one! You have…...man-related issues," Dipper nodded. Manotaur sat down and patted his leg. Dipper rested his head on it and began talking.

"Well my own uncle called me a wimp.." Dipper heard Danny grumble something about talking to Stan. Manotaur nodded along. "And I kind of flunked this manliness video game thing…" He continued. Danny rolled his eyes and Manotaur nodded again. He sat up. "Hey, you know, you're pretty manly. Maybe you could give me some pointers?" He asked. Manotaur nodded.

"Very well. Climb atop my back hair, child!" He did so and turned to Danny.

"You coming?"

"I don't really have a choice…" They started running through the woods, with Danny flying next to them. It was really fun and all until things started hitting him in the face. Dipper tried to hit them out of the way, but they were going too fast. He was very grateful when Danny started shooting things out of the way with his hand blast things. Eventually Manotaur jumped over a gorge and Dipper saw his life flash before his eyes. He screamed, but Manotaur crashed through the side of the mountain to reveal a cave full of manotaurs. He saw Danny cautiously come through the Manotaur-sized hole in the wall.

"This place is amazing!" Dipper exclaimed.

"The gnomes live in the trees, the merpeople live in the water, Cause they're losers!" Manotaur said, suddenly sounding pretty hostile. "But we Manotaurs crash in the MAN CAVE!" Manotaur rang a gong that came out of nowhere. "BEASTS! I have brought you two hairless children!" He heard Danny make an offended sound. Before he could make a comment, Dipper greeted the group.

"Sup." Real smooth, Dipper. Manotaur pointed to different Manotaurs.

"This is, uh, Pubetoaur, Testosteraur, Pituitaur, and Chutzpar. What are your names?" Manotaur asked.

"My name's Dipper," he started, but the Manotaurs booed him. "...the Destructor?" the Manotaurs nodded at him. Dipper looked at Danny.

"And Danny the Destroyer?" Danny asked more than said really. The Manotaurs nodded and Dipper saw Danny give him a strange look. Chutzpar banged the gong again.

"Dipper the Destructor wants us to teach him the secrets of manliness. Danny the Destroyer is here to accompany him in his training," Dipper decided now was the time to explain things.

"I need your help!" he pulled down his shirt. "Look at this guys! Look at this!" The Manotaurs looked thoughtful. The Manotaurs got into a huddle as Dipper and Danny watched. Suddenly one screamed something and punched another. The huddle dissolved into a fight. Dipper looked at Danny and smiled.

"I like these guys." Danny snorted and Dipper felt strangely proud. Luckily the fight didn't last long and soon the Manotaurs were back to their huddle. Eventually they came out of it and faced Dipper and Danny.

"After a lot of punching, we have decided to deny your request to learn our manly secret."

"Denied!" Another Manotaur said and punched himself in the face. Dipper's face fell until he had an idea. He smirked and opened his mouth.

"Denied? Ok, fine. That's okay. Obviously you guys think it would be too hard to train me. Maybe, you're not _man_ enough to try," he challenged. Dipper didn't miss the worried look Danny gave him, but he ignored it.

"Not MAN enough?" A Manotaur asked angrily and stepped forward. Dipper felt his throat tighten, but he didn't waver.

"Destructor…" Dipper heard Chutzpar warn. He ignored it. The Manotaur stepped forward again. Dipper felt Danny's hand grip his arm, probably ready to fly them both out of there at any moment.

"Not MAN enough?" the Manotaur repeated. "I have three Y chromosomes, six adam's apples, pecs on my abs, and FISTS FOR NIPPLES!" he screamed. Dipper ignored how every single thing in that sentence was impossible, and continued on.

"Seems to me you're too _scared_ to teach me how to be a man. Hey do you hear that? It sounds like…" He started making chicken noises. "Is that? That sounds like-Yeah a bunch of chickens!" To his relief, instead of pounding him into the ground, the Manotaurs made another huddle.

"After a second round of deliberation, we have decided to help you become a man!" A Manotaur said after they returned to their original position. The Manotaurs started chanting.

"MAN! MAN! MAN! MAN!" Dipper beamed.

"Great! Thanks guys, whatever it is. I will _not_ let you down!"

The training was a lot different than expected. The Manotaurs had just informed Dipper that he had to put his hand in a "pain hole". The same pain hole that had made a Manotaur run off screaming.

"Are you sure this is really necessary?" Dipper asked.

"You want to be a man don't you?" Chutzpar asked. The Manotaurs started chanting again.

"That thing isn't going to kill him right?" He heard Danny, who had reverted to his human form, ask Chutzpar. He didn't hear Chutzpar's response as he put his hand in the hole.

'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed. As he removed his hand, tears were streaming down his face. He jumped up and down and held his hand.

"Jesus Dipper, are you okay?" Danny asked him. Dipper held up a thumbs up with his uninjured hand.

"Alright, your turn, Danny the Destroyer!" Chutzpar said and Dipper watched and Danny's eyes widened.

"Uh...no thanks," Danny said.

"You are Destructor's mentor. Any trial he must go through, so must you. If you don't complete the task, Destructor cannot continue his training."

"Fine. Pain hole here I come!" Dipper watched as Danny stuck his hand in the hole. He winced as he waited for the loud scream that had come from the rest of them. Danny's reaction was limited to a wince. Dipper gaped at Danny. Danny removed his hand and shook it.

"How-?" Dipper sputtered.

"Kinda reminds me of the time i broke every bone in my hand," Danny said nonchalantly, as if that was a completely normal thing to say.

"What-How is your hand even still able to move?" He asked.

"Super healing. It's like magic."

Dipper and the Manotaurs sat in a hot spring. Danny was laying down on the ground next to them. Apparently he doesn't like heat.

"Guys, I just wanna say that these few hours have been..I-I feel like there's really been growth!" he said happily, and it was true. He felt about ten times more self assured now.

"I have a growth!" a Manotaur named Clark said. Dipper laughed.

"Clark, you are hilarious today!" Clark clicked his tongue and made finger guns at him. Dipper smiled. "It's just you guys took me under your wing, and have been so supportive."

"Yeah, cause you threatened their manliness." Dipper reached out and hit the side of Danny's head. Chutzpar seemed not to hear Danny, as he started talking.

'"Oh, stop."

"No, you know what, you really have been. I think I'm finally becoming a man here!" He said excitedly. Chutzpar waved his hand at him.

"Not yet, Destructor. One task remains. The deadliest of them all…" Chutzpar said ominously. Dipper narrowed his eyes.

"I've survived forty nine other trials. Whatever it is, bring it on!"

Dipper, Danny, and the Manotaurs got out soon after and prepared themselves for the next trial. They were about to meet the Manotaur's leader. Dipper got two tattoos on his arms. He didn't get to read what they said, but Danny looked like he was trying not to laugh, so he hoped they weren't too stupid. He stood up and the first row of Manotaurs kneeled. He wasn't sure why, but he rolled with it.

"Behold our leader, Leaderaur!" Chutzpar said. At the entrance of the cave, two Manotaurs parted to reveal a very small Manotaur. He started humming something.

"Is he like the oldest, or wisest, or..?" Dippe trailed off looking at Danny and Chutzpar. Danny shrugged. Chutzpar was about to speak but the old manotaur interrupted him.

"Greetings young-" the manotaur was cut off as a mouth came down and bit him through the middle. Dipper's eyes widened.

"Naw, he's just an offering. That" Chutzpar pointed upwards. "Is Leaderaur." Dipper briefly wondered how he didn't notice the huge creature before. Dipper watched as Leaderaur swallowed the old manotaur. Dipper gulped.

"You-You wish to be a man?" Leaderaur asked in a _very_ deep voice. Dipper did the logical thing. He banged on his chest and started screaming. The Manotaurs cheered.

"Then you and your friend must do a heroic act. Go to the highest mountain," Leaderaur reached into his pec, started screaming, and pulled a spear out of it. "And bring back the head of the Multi-Bear!" All the Manotaurs gasped.

"The Multi-Bear? Is that some kind of bear.." Dipper asked.

"No Dipper, obviously it's a fish," Danny snarked at him.

"He's our sworn enemy! Conquer him and your mansformation will be complete." Dipper hesitated. He'd never killed something before, and he didn't want to start.

"Conquer? I don't know man…"

"Destructor, is this yours?" Chutzpar asked. Dipper turned around to see him holding his BABBA CD case. Dipper blushed and snatched it out of Chutzpar's hand.

"Oh, no!" He laughed nervously. "I don't know whose that is, just borrowing it, friend's, not mine," Dipper almost hit himself over putting four excuses in one excuse. He saw Danny raise an eyebrow in the corner of his eye.

"Mmm, I don't know about this.." Dipper realized that the Manotaurs were losing faith in him. He walked over to the spear, held it over his head and yelled.

"I SHALL CONQUER THE MULTI-BEAR!" Everyone cheered, and a spark of fire fell onto Dipper. He quickly put it out.

"I'm okay!"

"Are you sure about this, Dipper?" Danny asked him as they approached the cave. "I've never killed anything before.." Dipper bit his lip. Of course he wasn't, but he needed to be a man, and this was the only way to do it.

"Yeah. Let's do this." Danny and Dipper walked(Well, Danny floated)into the cave. Dipper noticed some bones on the ground and picked one up.

"What even is a Multi-Bear?" Dipper asked Danny. He heard something growl and looked to the side.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say _that's_ a Multi-Bear," Danny answered. One of the heads roared and what Dipper is guessing is the main head silenced them.

"Children, why have you come here?" Multi-Bear asks him. Strange. Dipper expected it to attack first, ask questions later.

"Multi-Bear? I seek your head! Or, one of them, anyway? There's like-" Dipper stopped to count. "What? Six heads?" Multi-Bear's face hardened.

"This is foolish! Leave now or die!" he told them. Dipper got into a fighting stance and pointed his spear at the Muli-Bear. Danny made his hands do that glowy thing.

"So be it!" Multi-Bear charged them. Dipper ran up the wall, a skill he learned during trial 32. Multi-Bear threw a pile of bones at him, but Danny shot them out of the way. Dipper jumped on one of Multi-Bear's heads and made his way to the main one, choking it with his spear. Multi-Bear fell onto his back.

"A real man shows no mercy!" Multi-Bear sighed.

"Very well warrior. But will you grant a magical beast one last request?" Multi-Bear asked him. Dipper looked at Danny, who shrugged.

"Uh..okay.."

"I wish to die listening to my favorite song." Dipper turned around to see a tape player on a table. He hopped off of Multi-Bear and started walking towards it."The tape is already in there. You can just hit any-" Dipper pressed the play button. "Yeah, yeah, that's it." His eyes widened as he heard his favorite song start playing. He whirled around and faced Multi-Bear.

"You listen to Icelandic pop group BABBA? I-" He paused, looking at Danny, but stuck his chin up and continued. "I love BABBA," Dipper watched as Multi-Bear's eyes lit up.

"I thought I was the only one. All the Manotaurs make fun of me because I know all the words to the song "Disco Girl"," Dipper started to smile.

"Oh you mean.." He started to sing as he heard the chorus come on. _"Disco girl.."_ Multi-Bear started to join in.

" _Coming through.."_ They sang the next line together.

" _That girl is you! Oo-oo-oo!"_ Dipper laughed in excitement.

"This is crazy! Finally someone who understands-" He stopped talking as he remembered. "Uh..oh yeah. I guess I'm supposed to kill you? Or I'll never be a man.." he looked down.

"I accept my fate." Dipper looked up in disbelief.

"No! Really?" he asked, still unsure.

"It's for the best." Dipper raised his spear but then lowered it.

"No. This is stupid. I'm not killing an innocent creature." Dipper walked out of the cave before anyone could say anything else. He started the trek back to the cave, feeling down.

"I'm glad you decided not to kill him." Danny's voice came out of nowhere. "He seemed like a pretty cool guy." Dipper nodded but didn't say much else. Danny sighed. "Do you want me to carry you back to the cave? It'll be faster." Again, Dipper nodded. Danny picked Dipper up bridal style. Dipper blushed and looked away to make sure Danny couldn't see it. Wait. Oh no, please don't tell him Mabel was right. He looked up at Danny, who when noticed him, looked down and smiled. …..Crap. Mabel _was_ right. Dipper looked away again, out at the sky. So...what exactly does this make him. Gay? No, he's had crushes on girls before. Bisexual. He tried to divert his brain to a different topic, but he couldn't think about anything else. Which was awkward, considering he was in Danny's arms. When they finally got back, Dipper put his brave face back on. He walked up to Leaderaur and threw his spear down.

"I'm not gonna do it."

"You were told! The price of man is Multi-Bear's head!" Leaderaur roared. Dipper took a deep breath and remembered Danny's words.

" _You know you don't have to be stereotypically 'manly' to be awesome, right? You may not have the biggest muscles, but... that brain of yours more than makes up for anything."_

"Listen. Leaderaur, right? You too, Testosteraur, Pubertaur, and….whatever your name is. Beardy." He looked at a short Manotaur with a beard.

"Its Beardy."

"You keep telling me that being a man means doing all these tasks, and being aggro all the time, but I'm starting to think that stuff's malarky." For some reason, his confidence grew at the Manotaur's collective gasp. "You heard me, malarky. So maybe I don't have muscles, or hair in certain places, and.." he hesitated. "Sure, when a girly pop song comes on the radio, sometimes I leave it on! Because dang it, top forty hits are in the top forty for a reason! They're catchy!" He lectured, feeling slightly defensive now.

"Destructor….what are you saying?" Chutzpar asked him.

"I'm saying the Multi-Bear is a really nice guy. And you're a bunch of jerks if you want me to cut off his head!" He slightly regretted calling them jerks, considering they could probably crush him at any time. Leaderaur stood up and walked towards him, and he pushed down the urge to back up at least ten feet.

"KILL THE MULTI-BEAR OR YOU'LL NEVER BE A MAN!" Leaderaur screamed in his face. Dipper deflated slightly, but still spoke with confidence.

"Then I guess I'll never be a man." All the Manotaurs started booing him, calling him weak or lame. He tried to ignore it, but as a twelve year old boy with self esteem issues, it definitely got to him. He felt Danny grab his hand and pull him towards the exit of the cave.

"Cmon Dipper, let's get away from these jerks"

The walk back was mostly silent. Danny offered to fly them back, but with his new-found info, he wasn't all that keen. When they approached the diner, he heard Mabel start yelling at them.

"DIPPER! DANNY! It's me, Mabel! I'm looking through this glass! Right here! This is my voice! I'm talking to you from inside!" Dipper nodded and put out his hand for his twin to stop. When he walked in, Mabel was in their faces.

"Did you see me through the-" Dipper cut her off with a simple yes. Her face went from excited to concerned.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Complete lie, but he hoped his family would prod him.

"Good." Was all he got from Stan. Well, he was gonna talk about it anyway..He sat down next to Danny in the booth.

"It's just these half man half bull humanoids were hanging out with me.."

"Hear we go.." Danny hit Stan's hand from across the booth.

"But then they wanted me to do this really tough, horrible thing but it just wasn't right. So i said no," He said a slouched in his seat.

"You were your own man and you stood up for yourself." Dipper's eyes snapped back to Stan's face.

"What?"  
"Well, you did what was right even when no one-besides Danny, but he doesn't really count-agreed with ya. Sounds pretty manly to me, but what do I know?" Dipper beamed at Danny, then Stan.

"Wait a minute, do my eyes deceive me? You have a chest hair!" Mabel pointed to his chest. Dipper looked down and saw that she was right. He pumped his fist.

"You're right! I do!" He laughed. "This is amazing. I really do! Take that, man tester! Take that, Pituitor! This guy has chest hair!' Dipper pointed to himself. Mabel reached across the table and pulled it out.

"OW!"

"Scrapbookortunity!" She said and taped the hair to a page in her journal. Dipper pouted.

"Did you seriously just pull a hair from Dipper's chest?" Danny asked and Mabel nodded excitedly.

"Don't worry kid. If you're anything like me, there's more where that came from." Stan ripped open his shirt.

"OH, GROSS!" Dipper screened and shielded his eyes. Everyone started laughing.

"Seriously, that's disgusting."

"You should see my dad!"

/

 **AN: So yeah i have some things to explain. There is a reason that Danny is so uninvolved in this chapter, especially in the fight. He knows that this is Dipper's journey, and that he should let him make his own decisions in it. He also wants Dipper to feel like he's done something by himself, so he doesn't help all that much in the fight unless he think Dipper needs it. He also doesn't try to comfort Dipper after he doesn't kill the Multi-Bear because he knows that it's not Danny's approval Dipper's looking for, it's his family's. So yeah, that's Danny's reasoning behind that.**

 **On another note, the reason this chapter took so long was because I found it seriously hard to write, so I kept procrastinating and procrastinating. But, it's here now? *sweats***

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


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